General Electric reported better than expected earnings, helped by the recovery of its finance arm and a rise in revenue at its industrial units, including a sharp pickup in sales of locomotives.
The world's biggest maker of electric turbines and jet engines also reported a 12% rise in orders, driving its backlog - a key predictor of future sales - to $175 billion. GE's industrial organic growth, which excludes the impact of acquisitions and foreign exchange, rose 6% in the fourth quarter.
The largest US conglomerate said today that its fourth-quarter net income came to $4.5 billion, or 42 cents per share, up from $3 billion, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.
Profit from continuing operations came to 36 cents per share, above the 32 cents analysts had expected. Revenue rose 1% to $41.38 billion, above the $39.9 billion analysts had expected.
GE is viewed as a bellwether of the global economy due to the breadth and geographic reach of its operations. It competes with some of the world's largest businesses, including Germany's Siemens, French industrial group Alstom and Swiss engineering firm ABB.
GE's chief executive Jeffrey Immelt also noted that the company's finance unit posted a sharp improvement in the quarter, growing profit more than 10 times to $1.06 billion.
US President Barack Obama has named Immelt as head of a new economic advisory panel.
Earlier this week, US regulators approved GE's plan to sell a 51% stake in GE's NBC Universal unit to leading US cable operator Comcast Corp, in a move that sets the stage for the conglomerate's eventual exit from the media business.
The company expects its tax rate to rise this year, in part due to gains from the NBC sale.
