I like to revisit articles I wrote in the past to see how accurate (or not) my expectations for the future proved to be. Especially those written prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The pandemic was a game changer. Not just for the stock market, but for the entire global financial system.

It may be decades until we know the full extent of the impact it had on the global economy. Nearly five years after the virus emerged, we are only now regaining a sense of normalcy.

I believe future historians will bifurcate the performance of individual stocks as pre-COVID and post-COVID. That’s because many businesses that were thriving before the pandemic may never regain their footing while others suddenly caught fire.

One company that has survived the pandemic and emerged much stronger is GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE). The company formerly known as General Electric has doubled in value during the past year.

And since bottoming out near $40 less than two years, GE has more than quadrupled in price. Over the same span, the S&P 500 Index has gained roughly 60%.

Better Late Than Never

It’s been a long time coming. In February 2019, one year before the coronavirus pandemic came onto the scene, I wrote about General Electric.

I asked then, “Is it Too Late to Buy GE Stock?” At that time, GE was in the early stages of a turnaround plan that some thought was too little, too late.

Its share price tanked. That made its dividend yield so high that it became one the ten “Dogs of the Dow” in 2018.

So the theory goes, those stocks are more likely to rally strongly as the Dow rises. That’s because index funds must buy all of thirty stocks that comprise the Dow as it rises, including the laggards.

However, its prospects were so dim that it was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average later that year. The company was heavily in debt and at risk of going bankrupt.

That’s why GE sold its biopharma division to Danaher for $21.4 billion the month before. It used that money to strengthen its deteriorating balance sheet.

I said then, “I may turn out to be wrong about this, but I believe GE stock bottomed out two months ago.” I further opined that its share price would never drop that low again.

I turned out to be wrong about that. One year later, GE fell below $30 (dividend and split-adjusted) when the pandemic sent the stock market into a tailspin.

Divide and Conquer

That didn’t stop GE’s recently installed CEO, Larry Culp, from executing his plan to pare down the company. After decades of taking on debt to diversify into other businesses, it was ripe for restructuring.

Even under normal circumstances, unloading underperforming businesses is a difficult task. Everyone knows why you no longer want them. That makes them hard to sell.

Also, there aren’t many potential buyers for businesses of that size. If your competitors don’t want them, the next best option is spinning them off as independent entities.

In the end, that’s exactly what Culp did. During the past two years, General Electric split into three separate companies.

In December 2022, its medical products business began trading as GE Healthcare Technologies (NSDQ: GEHC). Six months ago, it spun off its utilities business as GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV).

Both of those companies have gotten off to a good start. GEHC is up 50% since its debut, while GEV has nearly doubled in price.

It took longer than expected, but Larry Culp can now proudly boast that he has fulfilled his promise to GE shareholders made six years ago. It wasn’t easy, but he got it done.

It is not the same General Electric that populated the “nifty fifty” during my father’s era. But it is a company that can survive and thrive in the post-pandemic world.

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