How GE Earnings Cleared a High Bar—and Sent the Stock Higher

GE Aerospace is a leader in jet propulsion. The company and BETA Technologies have partnered to advance hybrid electric flight. (Courtesy GE Aerospace)

Key Points

• GE Aerospace Aerospace reports adjusted quarterly earnings per share of $1.66, beating forecasts of $1.46.
• Adjusted revenue of $11.3 billion also tops forecasts.
• GE Aerospace stock has risen approximately 80% this year, outperforming the S&P 500 by 67 percentage points.

Strong momentum continued for GE Aerospace in its third-quarter earnings report. The stock rose after the company reported better-than-expected numbers and raised guidance.

GE Aerospace announced adjusted quarterly earnings per share of $1.66 from adjusted revenue of $11.3 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings per share of $1.46 from revenue of $10.4 billion, according to FactSet. A year ago, in the third quarter of 2024, GE reported EPS of $1.15 from revenue of $8.9 billion.

GE Aerospace has beaten analysts’ quarterly estimates every quarter since it separated from GE Vernova in 2024.

Full-year 2025 earnings guidance was raised to a range of $6 to $6.20 a share from a prior range of $5.60 to $5.80. New guidance implies fourth-quarter profit of about $1.30 a share, in line with Wall Street estimates.

GE Aerospace stock gained 1.3% closing at $306.63, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%.

Shares traded as high as $316.53, a new 52-week high. In mid-September, GE Aerospace stock hit an all-time high, just below $300 a share. Investors had to wait 9,150 days for a record high, but the stock hasn’t stopped since then.

For good reason, revenue and earnings are growing with higher demand for commercial travel and defense technologies, and improved profit margins across the business.

Revenue in the company’s commercial engine and services business jumped 27% to $8.9 billion. New orders topped that at $10.3 billion. Operating profit margins rose to 27.4%, up 1.7 percentage points year over year. Defense sales grew 26% year over year, while backlog expanded.

Things are good right now for the maker of jet engines. Still, it can take a lot for shares to move up, even on good news. GE stock dropped 2.2% after the company reported a second-quarter earnings beat in July. Along with solid results, short- and long-term guidance was also raised.

Improved performance has created “the valuation conundrum,” wrote Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard in a recent report. GE Aerospace stock trades for about 44 times estimated 2026 earnings, a premium to most other aerospace stocks. RTX, for instance, trades for about 24 times estimated 2026 earnings.

GE Aerospace is expected to grow earnings faster than RTX, though. Stallard isn’t too worried about valuation.

“There are cheaper aero alternatives, particularly in Europe, but our sense is that U.S. investors are not overly concerned with GE’s valuation as long as it continues to generate strong earnings and cash flow growth,” added the analyst.

That appears to be the case. GE expects 2025 free cash flow of about $7.1 billion, up from prior guidance of $6.7 billion.

Stallard rates shares Buy with a $340 price target.

Coming into the week, GE Aerospace stock was up about 80% this year, beating the S&P 500 by 67 percentage points.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com