If you’ve been hanging around the stock market for more than a decade, you remember a version of General Electric that basically acted like a high-yield savings account. It was the "widows and orphans" stock. Every quarter, like clockwork, that check arrived. It was reliable. It was boring. It was the backbone of millions of retirement portfolios. But honestly, if you're still looking at general electric company dividends through that 20th-century lens, you’re going to get hurt.
The GE of today isn't the sprawling, debt-heavy monster that Jack Welch built or that Jeff Immelt tried to steer through the Great Recession. Everything changed.
After years of "will they, won't they" drama regarding a total collapse, the company finally did the unthinkable. It split apart. Now, when we talk about dividends from the entity formerly known as General Electric, we’re actually talking about a trio of independent companies: GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, and GE HealthCare.
The old ticker symbol $GE$ now belongs to GE Aerospace. If you're holding those shares, your dividend reality has shifted from "income play" to "growth play with a side of cash."
The Brutal Reality of the GE Dividend Cut History
You can't understand where the money is going now without looking at the scars from 2018. That was the year the floor fell out.
GE slashed its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to a penny. Just one cent. It was a symbolic move as much as a financial one, signaling that the company was in survival mode. Larry Culp, the outsider CEO brought in from Danaher, didn't care about the optics of being a "dividend aristocrat." He cared about debt. He spent years selling off pieces of the jet engine and power business just to keep the lights on and the creditors at bay.
People felt betrayed. Investors who had relied on GE for decades suddenly saw their income stream evaporate. But here’s the thing: it worked. By gutting the general electric company dividends, Culp saved the company. He cleared tens of billions in debt. By the time 2024 rolled around, the "new" GE was lean enough to actually start rewarding shareholders again, but in a much more calculated way.
💡 You might also like: Walmart Completes $2.3B Acquisition of Vizio for Advertising Expansion: What This Means for Your Living Room
GE Aerospace: The New Anchor
Now that the split is complete, GE Aerospace is the primary successor. It’s the crown jewel. If you’re looking for a payout here, don't expect the 4% or 5% yields of the 1990s.
In early 2024, GE Aerospace announced a massive 250% increase in its quarterly dividend. That sounds incredible on paper, right? Well, sort of. It moved the payout from $0.08 to $0.28 per share. While the percentage jump is huge, the yield is still relatively modest compared to the stock price.
Why? Because GE Aerospace is currently the world leader in commercial jet engines. They have a massive backlog of orders for the LEAP engine (used in Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo) and the upcoming GE9X. Management knows they have a goldmine, so they’re balancing dividend payouts with massive R&D spending. They want to own the future of flight, not just pay out every spare cent to retirees.
They’ve also leaned heavily into share buybacks. For many modern investors, this is actually better than a dividend because it’s more tax-efficient. GE Aerospace authorized a $15 billion share repurchase program. Essentially, they are betting on themselves.
What About the Spin-offs?
If you held GE during the break-up, your mailbox probably got a bit crowded with new tax forms. You didn't just have one company anymore.
- GE HealthCare (GEHC): They were the first to leave the nest in early 2023. They’ve established their own dividend policy, usually hovering around a small but steady payout. They are a "steady Eddie" business—MRI machines and ultrasound tech aren't going away, but they aren't explosive growth either.
- GE Vernova (GEV): This is the power and renewable energy arm. As of mid-2024, they were more focused on stabilizing their margins in the wind turbine sector than on cutting fat checks. If you're looking for general electric company dividends specifically from the energy sector, you’re playing a long game here. It’s about the energy transition, not immediate quarterly income.
The "Total Return" Trap
Most people get stuck looking at the dividend yield. "Oh, it's only 0.7%? That's garbage," they say.
That’s a mistake.
Total return is what actually matters. If a stock pays a 5% dividend but the share price drops 10% every year, you're losing money. GE spent a decade doing exactly that. Now, the share price has been on a tear. Since the reorganization took hold, GE Aerospace has outperformed the S&P 500 significantly. The dividend is just the cherry on top of a very large, very profitable sundae.
Honestly, the era of using GE as a proxy for a bond is dead. You've got to treat it like a high-tech industrial firm now.
✨ Don't miss: Tucker Carlson Fox News Salary: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
Comparing GE to the Rest of the "Big Industrials"
How does the payout stack up against competitors? Let’s look at the landscape.
- Honeywell (HON): Generally offers a higher, more consistent yield. They didn't go through the near-death experience GE did, so their dividend is "safer" in the traditional sense.
- Raytheon (RTX): Very similar to GE Aerospace in terms of market dominance, but they’ve had their own struggles with engine recalls that have made their dividend yield fluctuate in terms of attractiveness.
GE is currently the "expensive" stock in the room. People are paying a premium for the turnaround story and the aerospace dominance. This means the dividend yield looks lower because the stock price is so high.
Assessing the Risks
Is the dividend safe? Yes. Probably safer than it’s been in twenty years.
GE Aerospace has a fortress balance sheet now. They aren't drowning in the GE Capital debt that nearly killed the parent company during the housing crisis. However, the risk isn't a "cut"—the risk is "stagnation."
If the aviation industry takes a hit—say, another global pandemic or a major structural issue with a common aircraft—GE’s cash flow dries up fast. Since they are no longer a conglomerate, they don't have other divisions to balance out a bad year in aviation. It's a double-edged sword. You get the pure-play growth, but you lose the safety net of diversification.
How to Handle GE Dividends Right Now
If you're an income-focused investor, you need to be realistic. You're not going to live off the general electric company dividends alone unless you have millions of dollars in the stock.
The smart move? DRIP it.
Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIP) allow you to automatically use those quarterly payouts to buy more fractional shares. Because GE Aerospace is in a growth phase, compounding those shares now could be worth significantly more than taking the cash and buying a cup of coffee every three months.
Actionable Steps for Investors
- Check your cost basis: If you’ve held GE since before the 2024 split, your "true" dividend yield might be higher or lower depending on when you bought in. Calculate your yield on cost to see if it still fits your portfolio's goals.
- Audit the spin-offs: Don't just ignore GE HealthCare or Vernova. Decide if those businesses actually fit your strategy. Many investors sell the spin-offs to consolidate their position in GE Aerospace.
- Watch the free cash flow (FCF): In the industrial world, dividends are paid from FCF, not just net income. As long as GE Aerospace's FCF continues to grow (which it is projected to do through 2025 and 2026), your dividend is not only safe but likely to increase.
- Stop chasing yield: If you see a company offering a 10% dividend, run. GE’s low yield is actually a sign of health—it means the market values the company's future growth more than a desperate cash handout.
The bottom line is that the "New GE" is a different beast. It’s faster, leaner, and much more focused. The dividends reflect that. They aren't a lifeline anymore; they're a signal of strength from a company that finally stopped bleeding and started leading again.