MeritValue

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO

GEdata completeness 100%19 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO earns about 15% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 3% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $63.61 and $232.47 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$56.5B1$29.1B2$35.3B3$38.7B3$45.9B3
Net income−$6.34B4$336M5$9.48B6$6.56B6$8.7B6
Operating cash flow$3.48B7$5.92B8$5.19B9$4.71B9$8.54B9
Capital expenditure$1.25B10$1.37B10$862M11$1.03B11$1.27B11
Free cash flow (derived)$2.23B7$4.55B8$4.33B9$3.68B9$7.26B9
Total debt$4.36B12$3.74B13$22B14$21.3B15$22.2B16
Cash & equivalents$15.8B17$15.8B18$15.2B19$13.6B20$12.4B20
Diluted shares1.10B1.10B1.10B1.09B1.07B

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$174.88
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$81.5
Free cash flow it threw off
$68.01
Debt you’d be carrying
$207.68

10 shares is a claim on $174.88 of net worth that earned you $81.5 and generated $68.01 of cash last year, against $207.68 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
15% avg · 5y
FY21 -16%FY22 6%FY23 28%FY24 25%FY25 30%

It earned about 15% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — comfortably above the cost of funding, a moderate advantage.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−3% shares · 5y

Share count is down 3% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice. Total debt has risen 409% over the same window.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $63.61 and $232.47 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$232.47
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$4.33B
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$122.93
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$4.33B
Earnings Power Value
$63.61
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$6.56B
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$56.59
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $122.93
The three cases
Bear0.0%$48.72
Base20.0%$122.93
Bull20.0%$122.93

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000040545-25-000015 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000040545-25-000015 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000040545-25-000015 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-23-000023 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-23-000023 (DebtCurrent)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (DebtCurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (LongTermDebt)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000040545-25-000015 (LongTermDebt)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (LongTermDebt)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000040545-23-000023 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000040545-24-000027 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000040545-25-000015 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000040545-26-000008 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)