GE Nudges Up Earnings Estimate; Stock Up BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co. (GE.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) on Thursday raised its first-quarter earnings per share forecast by a penny, citing strength across its businesses and proceeds from the sale of 80.5 million shares of Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) stock in a secondary offering. Shares of GE, which is considered a bellwether for the U.S. economy due to its wide range of businesses, rose 1.4 percent in morning trade and helped drive the stock market higher. GE said the Genworth share sale generated income of about $75 million for the quarter, and the remainder of the increase came from improvement in business performance. With more than 10 billion shares of stock outstanding, every penny of earnings per share for GE can represent about as $106 million of net income. "GE's end markets continue to show solid growth, and our businesses are performing very well," said Chief Executive Jeff Immelt in a statement. GE continues to benefit from an improving global manufacturing demand, a rebounding commercial aviation market and earnings improvements at its media and health-care units. "What's moving the stock today is GE's fundamentals," said Steve Roukis, director of research at Matrix Asset Advisors, which holds GE shares. "GE's upward guidance reinforces the strength we are seeing from the rest of the economy." GE, whose business include gas turbines, television shows and credit cards, said it now expects first-quarter earnings to be either 37 cents or 38 cents per share. Previously it had forecast 36 cents to 37 cents per share. Wall Street analysts, on average, have been looking for it to earn 37 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates and the company earned 32 cents a share in the quarter last year. GE spokesman David Frail called the first-quarter performance "broad-based," adding that it may be premature to single out any businesses before the quarter was officially finished. GE did not change its full-year earnings forecast. It confirmed its outlook for earnings of $1.76 to $1.83 per share in 2005. Analysts expect $1.81 per share, according to Reuters Estimates. It will receive net proceeds of about $2.6 billion from the Genworth offering and a related repurchase from GE of Genworth Class B common shares, GE said.     Continued ... Quelle "GE Nudges Up Earnings Estimate; Stock Up" : reuters.com Main page for "GE Nudges Up Earnings Estimate; Stock Up"