Power and renewable energy
I'm discussing these segments together because they are both businesses in turnaround mode. Simply put, CEO Larry Culp is trying to improve margins at both businesses and get them back to generating FCF in a couple of years.
The chart below shows one of the reasons the market got excited about GE's third-quarter earnings report. Both segments delivered a positive earnings margin in the quarter.
The key difference between the two segments is that power is a relatively slow-growth business because renewable energy is increasingly being used to generate electricity rather than the gas turbines that GE manufactures. That's good news for GE Renewable Energy, but not such good news for GE Power.
Subsequently, the key focus at GE Power (and specifically the gas power business) is to reduce costs. Culp plans to reduce gas power fixed costs to $2.5 billion by 2021 from $3.46 billion in 2018. It's a key number to watch in GE's fight to improve its margin.
Cited from an article posted 6 hours ago