After Striking a Deal, What’s an Investor to Think of General Electric Company (GE) and Comcast Corporation (CMCSA)?

Bottom Line:  Both Stocks Deserve Closer Attention

At current prices, GE trades at 17 times its diluted earnings per share, and Comcast is trading at roughly 26 times its adjusted earnings per share excluding one-time items.  Both stocks are solid dividend payers, with GE and Comcast yielding 3.25% and 2%, respectively.  GE offers investors a pretty typical value stock profile, with a trailing price-to-earnings multiple about equal to that of the broader market and a market-beating dividend yield.  Growth investors might prefer Comcast, as the company exhibits higher rates of growth in revenues, earnings, and dividends.

In either case, each company is very successful at their core competencies, and the $16 billion transaction will help each focus on what they do best.  I take this deal as a positive for both companies.  GE will now be able to refocus itself on its core industrial businesses, and Comcast will now become a premier media company.  Both dividend and growth investors will see plenty to like in each stock.

The article After Striking a Deal, What’s an Investor to Think of General Electric and Comcast? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Robert Ciura.

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