You probably remember the old General Electric. It was the "everything" company. From lightbulbs and toaster ovens to jet engines and subprime mortgages, GE was the pulse of the American economy for a century. But if you’re looking at the GE stock price today and feeling a little confused, you aren't alone. The ticker symbol GE doesn't represent that massive, sprawling conglomerate anymore.
It’s leaner. It’s focused. And frankly, it’s a lot more expensive than it used to be.
The biggest mistake people make when checking the GE stock price is forgetting the "Three-Way Split." Back in early 2024, Larry Culp—the guy credited with saving the company from total collapse—finalized the breakup of the century. GE shattered itself into three distinct, publicly traded entities: GE HealthCare, GE Vernova, and GE Aerospace.
If you held shares of the old GE, your portfolio looks totally different now. The current "GE" ticker belongs exclusively to GE Aerospace. That’s it. No more power turbines. No more MRI machines. Just jet engines and defense.
The ghost of Jack Welch and the $150 billion lesson
To understand where the GE stock price is going, you have to look at the wreckage Larry Culp inherited in 2018. Under Jack Welch, GE was a financial powerhouse that hid a lot of its industrial sins behind a massive bank called GE Capital. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, that mask slipped.
The company spent the next decade bleeding. They slashed the dividend to a penny. They got kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average—a spot they'd held for over 100 years. It was brutal. Honestly, it was embarrassing for a company founded by Thomas Edison.
Culp’s strategy was simple but painful: sell everything that wasn't bolted down to pay off the mountain of debt. He sold the legendary lightbulb business. He sold the bio-pharma unit to Danaher. He even merged the aircraft leasing business with AerCap.
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By the time the spinoffs happened, GE had hacked away over $100 billion in debt. That is why the GE stock price started showing signs of life again. It wasn't because they were growing; it was because they were finally solvent.
What actually drives the GE stock price today?
Now that GE is officially GE Aerospace, the stock price moves on entirely different metrics than it did five years ago. You’re no longer betting on global electricity demand or healthcare spending in China. You are betting on two things: Flight hours and Defense contracts.
The aerospace business is a "razor and blade" model. GE (often through its CFM International joint venture with Safran) sells jet engines at a relatively low margin, or even a loss. They make their real money on the decades of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) that follow.
Every time a Boeing 737 Max or an Airbus A320neo takes off with a LEAP engine, GE makes money. When global air travel stays high, the GE stock price tends to follow.
- The Shop Visit Cycle: Investors watch "shop visits" like hawks. This is when an engine comes in for a full teardown. It’s a massive payday for GE.
- Military Spend: With global tensions rising, the defense side of the house—engines for the F-35 and various combat helicopters—is a steady, high-margin floor for the stock.
- Supply Chain Chokepoints: This is the current headache. GE can't build engines fast enough because of casting and forging shortages. If you see the stock dip, it’s usually because of "parts availability," not a lack of demand.
Don't get tripped up by the GE Vernova spinoff
A lot of folks look at the historical chart for the GE stock price and see a massive "drop" in April 2024. That wasn't a crash. It was the spinoff of GE Vernova (GEV), the power and renewable energy wing.
If you were a shareholder on the day of the split, you were given shares of GEV. The value of the original GE stock was reduced because a huge chunk of the company's assets (the wind turbines and gas plants) left the building.
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Vernova is actually doing quite well on its own now, benefiting from the massive surge in electrical grid demand caused by AI data centers. But if you want a piece of that, you have to buy GEV. Buying GE only gives you the planes.
The valuation trap: Is it too expensive?
If you look at the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for GE Aerospace, it might make your eyes water. It often trades at a significant premium compared to old-school industrial peers.
Why? Because it’s no longer an "industrial" company. Wall Street views it as a "high-quality compounder."
Think about it. There are only two companies in the world that can build high-thrust jet engines at scale: GE and Rolls-Royce (Pratt & Whitney is in the mix, but they've had major durability issues lately). That kind of duopoly creates a "moat" that investors are willing to pay a premium for.
However, you've got to be careful. The GE stock price is sensitive to Boeing’s disasters. Since GE is the exclusive engine provider for the 737 Max, every time Boeing has a production halt or a regulatory blowout, GE's delivery schedule gets wrecked. It's a symbiotic relationship that occasionally feels like a hostage situation.
Institutional sentiment: Who is buying GE?
According to recent 13F filings, institutional ownership of GE remains incredibly high, hovering around 70-80%. Big players like Vanguard and BlackRock are the top holders. This is generally a good sign for stability, but it means the "easy money" from the turnaround has likely been made.
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Analyst ratings from firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have been largely bullish on GE Aerospace because of its massive $150 billion+ backlog. They have enough work lined up to keep their factories humming for the next decade.
But, and this is a big "but," the aerospace industry is cyclical. A global recession that grounds flights would hit the GE stock price harder than a more diversified company. There's no longer a healthcare division to balance out a bad year in aviation.
Actionable steps for the modern GE investor
If you are looking to trade or hold GE in 2026, you need a specific game plan. You can't use the playbook from 2005.
1. Verify your cost basis. If you held GE pre-split, make sure your brokerage has correctly adjusted your cost basis for the GE HealthCare and GE Vernova spinoffs. Many people get hit with "phantom gains" because they don't realize their original purchase price was split across three stocks.
2. Watch the "Shop Visit" count. In the quarterly earnings calls, ignore the fluff. Look for the number of commercial engine shop visits. If that number is growing, the cash flow is safe.
3. Monitor the narrow-body market. GE’s bread and butter is the single-aisle aircraft (the planes you take for 3-hour domestic flights). If airlines start deferring maintenance or slowing down orders for these planes, that’s your signal to trim your position.
4. Check the "Free Cash Flow" (FCF). Larry Culp is obsessed with FCF. It’s the money left over after all the bills are paid and the factories are upgraded. GE Aerospace aims to return about 70-75% of its FCF to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. If FCF stalls, the stock will likely follow.
The GE stock price isn't just a number on a screen; it’s a reflection of how much we trust the future of flight. It took a decade of pain to turn this ship around, but the General Electric of today is finally a company that knows exactly what it wants to be when it grows up. Just make sure you know which "GE" you're actually buying before you hit that trade button.