The U.S. conglomerate, which also has financial and media businesses, reported fourth-quarter profit of $6.7 billion or 66 cents per share, compared with profit of $6.44 billion, or 62 cents per share a year earlier.
BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co <GE.N> on Friday posted a profit that met expectations on strong demand for heavy equipment such as jet engines and electricity-producing turbines.
The U.S. conglomerate, which also has financial and media businesses, reported fourth-quarter profit of $6.7 billion or 66 cents per share, compared with profit of $6.44 billion, or 62 cents per share a year earlier.
Fourth quarter 2007 profit from continuing operations came to 68 cents per diluted share.
Growth at the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization behind Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> has been driven by continued investment in infrastructure equipment abroad, particularly in the fast-growing economies of China and India and the Middle East. Its NBC Universal media unit, which had struggled for several years, has also picked up.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Shares of GE closed 2007 essentially flat. Following Thursday's sharp sell off in U.S. equities, GE shares are down more than 10 percent so far this year, deeper than the 8 percent drop in the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> and the 9 percent slide of the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index <.SPX>.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Derek Caney)
