Excellent 2023 supported by solid fourth quarter; GE Aerospace and GE Vernova ready to launch in early April
Fourth quarter 2023:
- Total orders of $21.7B, +8%; organic orders +7%
- Total revenues (GAAP) of $19.4B, +15%; adjusted revenues* $18.5B, +13% organically*
- Profit margin (GAAP) of 10.3%, +90 bps; adjusted profit margin* 9.6%, +50 bps organically*
- Continuing EPS (GAAP) of $1.44, $(0.09); adjusted EPS* $1.03, +$0.37
- Cash from Operating Activities (GAAP) of $3.2B, $(0.4)B; free cash flow* $3.0B, $(0.4)B
Full year 2023:
- Total orders of $79.2B, +25%; organic orders +25%
- Total revenues (GAAP) of $68.0B, +17%; adjusted revenues* $64.6B, +17% organically*
- Profit margin (GAAP) of 15.0%, +1,640 bps; adjusted profit margin* 8.8%, +310 bps organically*
- Continuing EPS (GAAP) of $7.98, +$8.98; adjusted EPS* $2.81, +$2.04
- Cash from Operating Activities (GAAP) of $5.6B, +$1.5B; free cash flow* $5.2B, +$2.1B
BOSTON — January 23, 2024 — GE (NYSE:GE) announced results today for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2023.
GE Chairman and CEO and GE Aerospace CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said, "2024 will be a momentous year as GE Aerospace and GE Vernova plan to launch as independent public companies in early April. Both companies will carry forward GE's commitment to innovation and continuous improvement, with even sharper focus on their vital, growing industries. They serve vast and valuable installed bases with enviable service franchises that keep them close to customers, day in and day out. I am proud of what our teams have accomplished and excited for our next chapter as GE Aerospace invents the future of flight and GE Vernova leads the energy transition."
Culp continued, "In 2023, our teams delivered an excellent year, more than tripling earnings and generating almost 70 percent more free cash flow. At GE Aerospace, we drove solid revenue and operating profit improvement in the fourth quarter and double-digit revenue, profit, and cash growth for the year, reflecting ongoing strength in Commercial Engines and Services. At GE Vernova, Renewable Energy and Power together delivered meaningfully better results, with double-digit revenue growth in the quarter and positive profit and free cash flow for the year. We expect further revenue, profit, and free cash flow growth for both GE Aerospace and GE Vernova in 2024."
GE Aerospace1
- Delivered higher orders, revenue, and operating profit in the quarter. For the year, delivered double-digit growth in orders, revenue, operating profit, and cash due to commercial momentum and strength in services, which represent approximately 70 percent of revenue.
- Announced an order for 202 GE9X engines and spares by Emirates to power its upcoming fleet of Boeing 777X, bringing Emirates' total order for GE9X engines to 460.
- Named the GE Directors who will continue as members of GE Aerospace's Board of Directors, including two new additions with deep aerospace experience who joined in December.
GE Vernova
- Renewable Energy and Power drove double-digit revenue growth in the quarter. For the year, together they delivered strong revenue growth, operating profit improvement of over $1 billion, and positive free cash flow, with services representing approximately 65 percent of backlog.
- Secured 2.4 GW order to support Pattern Energy's SunZia wind project in New Mexico—expected to be the largest wind project in U.S. history—with 674 onshore wind turbines and a long-term services award.
- Reached key milestones toward its spin-off, including naming its Board of Directors, filing its Form 10 registration statement on a confidential basis, and achieving operational readiness.
In addition, GE:
- Received total proceeds of $2.0 billion in the quarter from the sale of its remaining AerCap shares. During 2023, GE monetized approximately $9 billion in proceeds from exiting its Baker Hughes and AerCap stakes and a portion of its GE HealthCare shares.
- Repurchased, under our $3 billion authorized repurchase program, approximately 2.2 million common shares for $0.3 billion in the fourth quarter, bringing the total common shares repurchased under the program in 2023 to approximately 10.6 million shares for $1.1 billion. In addition, the company redeemed all outstanding preferred stock for $5.8 billion during 2023.
- Incurred separation costs of $0.3 billion in the quarter and $1.0 billion for the year, primarily related to employees, establishing standalone functions and IT systems, and professional fees.
2024 Guidance
For the first quarter of 2024, GE expects to deliver high-single-digit revenue growth, adjusted EPS* of $0.60 to $0.65, and free cash flow* in line with net income growth.
For the full year, GE's 2024 guidance reflects GE Vernova and GE Aerospace operating independently, incorporating standalone and other costs that each will incur separately. GE Vernova expects to deliver revenue of $34 billion to $35 billion; adjusted EBITDA* margin of mid single digits, toward the higher end of the range; and free cash flow* of $0.7 billion to $1.1 billion. GE Aerospace expects adjusted revenue* to grow low double digits or more, operating profit* of $6.0 billion to $6.5 billion, and free cash flow* of greater than $5 billion.
GE Vernova and GE Aerospace will hold Investor Days in New York, NY, on Wednesday, March 6 and Thursday, March 7, 2024, respectively, where they will provide additional details on their outlooks. In addition, the businesses announced their planned quarterly earnings calls for 2024. GE Aerospace will host its calls on April 23, July 23, and October 22. GE Vernova will host its calls on April 25, July 24, and October 23.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
Financial Measures That Supplement GAAP
We believe that presenting non-GAAP financial measures provides management and investors useful measures to evaluate performance and trends of the total company and its businesses. This includes adjustments in recent periods to GAAP financial measures to increase period-to-period comparability following actions to strengthen our overall financial position and how we manage our business.
In addition, management recognizes that certain non-GAAP terms may be interpreted differently by other companies under different circumstances. In various sections of this report we have made reference to the following non-GAAP financial measures in describing our (1) revenues, specifically organic revenues by segment; organic revenues, (2) profit, specifically organic profit and profit margin by segment; Adjusted profit and profit margin; Adjusted organic profit and profit margin; Adjusted earnings (loss) and Adjusted earnings (loss) per share (EPS), (3) cash flows, specifically free cash flows (FCF), and (4) guidance, specifically first quarter 2024 Adjusted EPS, 2024 GE Vernova FCF, 2024 GE Aerospace adjusted operating profit and 2024 GE Aerospace FCF.
The reasons we use these non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures follow. Certain columns, rows or percentages within these reconciliations may not add or recalculate due to the use of rounded numbers. Totals and percentages presented are calculated from the underlying numbers in millions.
Caution Concerning Forward Looking Statements:
This release and certain of our other public communications and SEC filings may contain statements related to future, not past, events. These forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," "estimate," "forecast," "target," "preliminary," or "range." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about planned and potential transactions, including our plan to pursue a spin-off of our portfolio of energy businesses that are planned to be combined as GE Vernova; the impacts of macroeconomic and market conditions and volatility on our business operations, financial results and financial position and on the global supply chain and world economy; our expected financial performance, including cash flows, revenues, organic growth, margins, earnings and earnings per share; our credit ratings and outlooks; our funding and liquidity; our businesses’ cost structures and plans to reduce costs; restructuring, goodwill impairment or other financial charges; or tax rates.
For us, particular areas where risks or uncertainties could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include:
- our success in executing planned and potential transactions, including our plan to pursue a spin-off of GE Vernova and sales or other dispositions of our remaining equity interest in GE HealthCare, the timing for such transactions, the ability to satisfy any applicable pre-conditions, and the expected proceeds, consideration and benefits to GE;
- changes in macroeconomic and market conditions and market volatility, including risk of recession, inflation, supply chain constraints or disruptions, interest rates, the value of securities and other financial assets (including our equity interest in GE HealthCare), oil, natural gas and other commodity prices and exchange rates, and the impact of such changes and volatility on our business operations, financial results and financial position;
- global economic trends, competition and geopolitical risks, including impacts from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the related sanctions and other measures and risks related to conflict in the Middle East, demand or supply shocks from events such as a major terrorist attack, natural disasters or actual or threatened public health pandemics or other emergencies, or an escalation of sanctions, tariffs or other trade tensions between the U.S. and China or other countries, and related impacts on our businesses' global supply chains and strategies;
- market developments or customer actions that may affect demand and the financial performance of major industries and customers we serve, such as demand for air travel and other commercial aviation sector dynamics; pricing, cost, volume and the timing of investment by customers or industry participants and other factors in renewable energy markets; conditions in key geographic markets; technology developments; and other shifts in the competitive landscape for our products and services;
- our capital allocation plans, including the timing and amount of dividends, share repurchases, acquisitions, organic investments, and other priorities;
- downgrades of our current short- and long-term credit ratings or ratings outlooks, or changes in rating application or methodology, and the related impact on our funding profile, costs, liquidity and competitive position;
- the amount and timing of our cash flows and earnings, which may be impacted by macroeconomic, customer, supplier, competitive, contractual and other dynamics and conditions;
- capital or liquidity needs associated with our run-off insurance operations and mortgage portfolio in Poland (Bank BPH), the amount and timing of any required future capital contributions and any strategic options that we may consider;
- operational execution and improvements by our businesses, including the success at our Renewable Energy business in improving product quality and fleet availability, executing on our product and project cost estimates and delivery schedule projections and other aspects of operational performance, as well as the performance of GE Aerospace amidst market growth and ramping newer product platforms;
- changes in law, regulation or policy that may affect our businesses, such as trade policy and tariffs, regulation and incentives related to climate change (including the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act and other policies), and the effects of tax law changes;
- our decisions about investments in research and development, and new products, services and platforms, and our ability to launch new products in a cost-effective manner;
- the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of shareholder and related lawsuits, Alstom, Bank BPH and other investigative and legal proceedings;
- the impact of actual or potential quality issues or failures of our products or third-party products with which our products are integrated, and related costs and reputational effects;
- the impact related to information technology, cybersecurity or data security breaches at GE or third parties; and
- the other factors that are described in the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as such descriptions may be updated or amended in any future reports we file with the SEC.
These or other uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements. This document includes certain forward-looking projected financial information that is based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.
GE’s Investor Relations website at www.ge.com/investor and our corporate blog at www.gereports.com, as well as GE’s LinkedIn and other social media accounts, contain a significant amount of information about GE, including financial and other information for investors. GE encourages investors to visit these websites from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.
* Non-GAAP Financial Measure
1Following the planned spin-off, in which GE will distribute the common stock of GE Vernova on a pro rata basis to holders of GE common stock, General Electric Company will be known as GE Aerospace. In current financial reporting and guidance, GE Aerospace refers to our existing reporting segment.
Additional Financial Information
Additional financial information can be found on the Company’s website at: www.ge.com/investor under Events and Reports.
Conference Call and Webcast
GE will discuss its results during its investor conference call today starting at 7:30 a.m. ET. The conference call will be broadcast live via webcast, and the webcast and accompanying slide presentation containing financial information can be accessed by visiting the Events and Reports page on GE’s website at: www.ge.com/investor. An archived version of the webcast will be available on the website after the call.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) rises to the challenge of building a world that works. For more than 130 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today the company’s dedicated team, leading technology, and global reach and capabilities help the world work more safely, efficiently, and reliably. GE’s people are diverse and dedicated, operating with the highest level of integrity and focus to fulfill GE’s mission and deliver for its customers. www.ge.com
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GE Media Contact:
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