Jeff Immelt, the embattled GE chief executive, has got six months to save his skin.
That’s the message coming from investors just days ahead of the troubled industrial giant’s second quarter earnings announcement.
Immelt’s credibility took a beating in April when earnings for the first quarter came in 7 cents shy of expectations – a huge miss for GE, known on the Street for its uncanny ability to hit expectations.
And the miss came just weeks after Immelt said things were going well at the company.
The big miss stunned Wall Street and turned a spotlight on GE’s terrible share price, which has taken a 25 percent-plus dive since the start of the year and is flat over a five-year period.
Immelt, 52, plans to sell off GE’s credit-card division and other underperforming non-core assets – like its appliance operation – in part to quiet a growing chorus of investors calling for a break-up of the giant.
The company reports second quarter results on Friday and most analysts expect them to come in at around 53 cents a share, as expected. But if the company hadn’t managed to book its sale of a stake in Penske Truck Leasing business for $219 million at the close of the second quarter, GE might have missed again.
Three major institutional investors that spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity each felt Immelt has until the years’ end to repair his battered credibility.