GE finished breaking itself into three pieces this week. And it looks like when the company cracked open a bunch of cash fell out. GE Aerospace, the jet engine segment that kept the “GE” stock ticker, announced Friday that it would be raising its dividend by 250%.
“The Board of Directors of GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE) today declared a $0.28 per share dividend on the outstanding common stock of the Company,” a press release reads. It might not sound like a lot, but since the dividend used to just be $0.08 a share, that’s a pretty nice bump.
GE had spent its previous 132 years growing into one of the biggest, most complex conglomerates in corporate America. (In fact, the company has been around since before America finished becoming America; its founding came before the states of Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska were admitted to the United States.) It began as a way for Thomas Edison to sell light bulbs, but in time came to sell pretty much everything else from Super Bowl ad space to military weapons components.
But that’s all done now. After getting rid of a bunch of other parts of itself, all that remains are three public entities: Alongside GE Aerospace is GE Vernova, which makes energy infrastructure, and GE Health Care, which makes equipment for hospitals.
“This year’s letter is our last for GE in its current form,” CEO Larry Culp wrote in the note accompanying the corporation’s 2023 annual report, adding that “we are not marking the end. This is the beginning.”
GE shares, already up more than 50% this year, added another 6% in Friday trading.