New CEO Larry Culp on the Q4 GE earnings call:

Number one is managing first and foremost for operational performance. Preparing for the earnings call, my first month on the job showed me that we often start with corporate and bring in the business leaders, including the CEO, later. We turned that around this quarter, holding operating reviews first and then preparing for this call. Those reviews were tightly focused on how we do and how do we get better more so than how do we explain what just happened.

Translating Corporate Speak: “Unbelievably, we used to set an earnings number at corporate and then bring people in and tell them this is what you need to hit. Now we are actually trying to run the businesses as best we can and add up the results and report to you.”

We think the stock can be bought, albeit sized appropriately and the debt and preferreds are money good if you are asking. There are other people in the world who have opinions on GE who are not the same three analysts who are quoted, requoted and retweeted incessantly in the press.

Source: GE Webcast Q4 2018 Earnings Transcript