By Al Root

GE Aerospace produced "blowout" second-quarter results on Thursday. Wall Street reacted by hiking stock price targets.

The new targets represent a potential milestone for the maker of jet engines.

GE Aerospace on Thursday reported second-quarter operating profit of $2.3 billion and earnings per share of $1.66 on sales of $10.2 billion. Wall Street was looking for operating profit of $2.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.43 on sales of $9.6 billion, according to FactSet.

Guidance was raised, too. Management now expects 2025 operating profit of between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion, up from a prior range of $7.8 billion to $8.2 billion. Management is now targeting a 2028 operating profit of about $11.5 billion, up from prior guidance, provided in 2024, of $10 billion.

"Blowout performance" is how Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard characterized the quarter. He rates shares Buy and increased his price target to $300 from $288 a share.

That was one of several price target increases. RBC's Ken Herbert took his target to $300 from $275. That was the same target and jump for TD Cowen's Gautam Khanna. Deutsche Bank's Scott Deuschle raised his target to $315 from $300. There were a few other hikes, according to FactSet. Those three also rate GE Aerospace shares Buy.

The stock was up 2.3% at $266.46 in midday trading Wednesday, following the target changes, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat and down 0.4%, respectively.

Bullish analysts are settling at a price of about $300 per share for GE Aerospace stock. That's noteworthy. Reaching that target would be a new all-time high for GE.

GE, which is now GE Aerospace, hit an all time closing high of $287.15 on Aug. 28, 2000, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The record intraday high is $289.54, also hit on Aug. 28, 2000.

That was almost 25 years ago. It's been a long road back for GE.

GE was the world's most valuable company at its 2000 highs, worth some $600 billion. Eclipsing those those two levels won't return GE Aerospace's market value to that level. There have been share buybacks and spinoffs over the years, notably the 2023 spinoff of GE HealthCare Technologies, and the 2024 spinoff of GE Vernova.

At the top analyst price targets, GE Aerospace would be worth roughly $340 billion. At top analyst price targets, GE Vernova and GE HealthCare would be worth about $190 billion and $45 billion, respectively.

That totals about $575 billion, very close to the all-time market value high.

What happened 25 years ago, however, doesn't typically interest investors. Looking ahead, Wall Street still likes the three GE stocks.

For GE Aerospace, 76% of analysts covering the stock rate shares Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The Buy-rating ratios for GE Vernova and GE HealthCare are 75% and 73%, respectively.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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July 18, 2025 12:46 ET (16:46 GMT)

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