GE (NYSE:GE) shares took a dip today on fourth-quarter results that came up shy of the consensus forecast amid supply chain problems.
The Boston-based company posted losses of $3.9 billion, or $3.55 per share, on sales of $20.3 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2021, for a massive bottom-line slide from profits of $2.4 billion this time last year on a sales decline of 3.5%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 82¢, 5¢ behind Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $21.5 billion.
GE’s healthcare segment also experienced a slight revenue decline, registering sales of more than $4.6 billion for a dip of 4.1%. The company attributed the sales drop to ongoing industry-wide supply shortages and inflation, but said its healthcare arm is well-positioned for continued profitable growth as GE prepares to stand up the business as an independent company in 2023.
“2021 was an important year for the GE team, marked by significant strategic, operational, and financial progress,” GE Chairman & CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said in a news release. “We delivered solid margin, EPS, and free cash flow performance in 2021, exceeding our outlook. Orders for the year were up double digits, supporting faster growth going forward, while supply chain challenges, commercial selectivity, and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. wind production tax credit impacted our top-line.”
GE said it now expects to log adjusted EPS for the full year 2022 of between $2.80 and $3.50. The company expects organic revenues to grow in the high-single-digit range.
GE shares were down 6.2% at $90.94 per share in early-morning trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was down 1.4%.