Third-quarter earnings at General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) were basically a disaster -- with CEO John Flannery calling the company's performance "unacceptable." It's no wonder the shares plunged after the report. But is it time for investors to run for the hills or an opportunity to invest in this industrial giant? There are definitely risks today, but if you have the stomach for turnarounds, they may be worth taking on.
General Electric sports more than a 4% dividend yield today. That's very enticing when an S&P 500 Index fund will get you only around 2%. Before the third-quarter earnings report, I believed that the dividend was on solid ground, but now I'm not so sure. If the only reason you're interested in GE is the yield, you should probably be looking somewhere else at this point. Put simply, the risk of a cut is large.
Image source: Getty Images.
Source: Fool.com