Europe a drag on GE earnings

NEW YORK — General Electric’s first quarter results were dragged down by deteriorating economic conditions in Europe, highlighting the danger that the region’s struggles still pose to the global economy.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt said he expected results in Europe to be bad in the quarter — and they were worse. Revenue from the region fell 17 percent compared with last year.

While GE’s results were roughly what analysts expected and Immelt said the company remained on track to meet its financial goals for the year, his gloomy comments about Europe and the weak performance of the company’s core industrial operations sent GE shares tumbling.

GE shares dropped 92 cents, or 4 percent, to close at $21.75 Friday. This even though the company’s earnings rose in the first quarter, helped by the sale of NBC Universal and increased profit from selling aircraft engines and transportation equipment. GE reported net income of $3.5 billion, or 34 cents per share, on revenue of $35 billion. During last year’s first quarter, GE earned $3 billion, or 29 cents per share, on $35.2 billion in revenue.

Adjusted to reflect earnings only from continuing operations, GE earned 35 cents per share. That matches what analysts surveyed by FactSet expected. The analysts expected slightly lower revenue of $34.5 billion.

But sales from the company’s core industrial equipment and services divisions — the divisions GE are counting on to deliver growth — fell 6 percent, and profit fell 11 percent.

Immelt said he thought the first half of this year would be difficult, but some customers delayed purchases and revenue came in about $200 million lower than he had hoped. He expects those customers to come back later in the year, and help improve the company’s performance.

That’s not what investors wanted to hear. “Investors want to see results now,” said Christian Mayes, an analyst at Edward Jones. “They don’t like the whole ‘wait for the second half of the year’ approach.”