GE's stock falls for 12th straight month
General Electric's stock fell 13 percent in February, marking the 12th consecutive monthly decline.
The yearlong decline is GE's longest losing streak on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that goes back to 1971. The 12-month tally of GE shareholder losses: $138 billion.
Chief Executive Officer John Flannery, who took the helm in mid-2017, is cutting costs and reshaping the portfolio to try to pull GE out of one of the worst slumps in its 126-year history. The Boston-based company has faced myriad challenges, from flagging demand for industrial equipment to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of its accounting.
The slide started as cash-flow problems emerged under former CEO Jeffrey Immelt, and only got worse after Flannery slashed the dividend and revealed poor earnings. While the new CEO won praise this week for an overhaul of the board, at least one analyst said GE isn't poised for a quick rebound: Julian Mitchell at Barclays said he's inclined to "wait on the sidelines until we have a clearer sense that the bottom has been reached."
-- Bloomberg News
Baldor Electric changes name to ABB
Fort Smith-based Baldor Electric is getting a name change.
Effective today, Baldor Electric will be known as ABB. The electric motor-maker is part of the ABB Group, a Zurich-based global leader in the industrial power and automation technology markets. The move meshes the various ABB brands under a master brand, according to a release.
ABB Ltd. said it intends to support the entire ABB motors and generators unit in the U.S. ABB Ltd. is also based in Fort Smith.
"This represents yet another great step in building a market-focused, lean organization and unifying the ABB brand across the globe," said Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Motor division, which includes Baldor.
Once publicly traded, Baldor was acquired by ABB Ltd. in 2011 in a deal valued at $4.2 billion. ABB took Baldor private when the deal was finalized.
-- John Magsam
Judge to review suit against Plant Board
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has scheduled a hearing at 9 a.m. March 30 to consider the status of a lawsuit filed against the state Plant Board by six northeast Arkansas farmers.
Fox has recently dismissed lawsuits filed against the state. The state Supreme Court ruled in January that the state has sovereign immunity under its 1874 constitution and cannot be made a defendant in its own court.
The six farmers sued the Plant Board in November over the board's actions in limiting the use of the Monsanto dicamba herbicide on crops this year. Their lawsuit, along with Monsanto's, claimed that the board's composition is unconstitutional, because half of its members are private citizens representing various segments of the agriculture industry.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza on Feb. 16 dismissed a similar lawsuit filed against the board by Monsanto, the St. Louis-based seed and chemical manufacturer. Piazza didn't rule on the specific claims raised by the company.
-- Stephen Steed
Louisiana oil pipe too risky, ruling says
BATON ROUGE -- A federal judge who halted construction of a crude-oil pipeline through a Louisiana swamp concluded that the project's irreversible environmental damage outweighs the economic harm that a delay would cause the company building it.
U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick issued a 61-page ruling Tuesday to explain her decision last week to stop construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in environmentally fragile Atchafalaya Basin.
The judge said the project potentially threatens the hydrology of the basin and "poses the threat of destruction of already diminishing wetlands." She also agreed with environmental groups that centuries-old "legacy" trees can't be replaced once they're cut down.
Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC on Monday asked Dick to suspend her order while it appeals, but the judge refused. The company is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Dick's decision.
Dick clarified that the preliminary injunction she issued last Friday applies only to the basin. The order doesn't prevent the company from working elsewhere along the pipeline's 162-mile route from Lake Charles to St. James Parish.
-- The Associated Press
Lowe's sees 16.4% drop in 4Q earnings
NEW YORK -- Lowe's recorded falling profits in the fourth quarter despite a red-hot housing market.
Healthy same-store sales were overshadowed by the profit miss and lower overall revenue.
The Mooresville, N.C., company on Wednesday reported a 16.4 percent drop in earnings to $554 million, or 67 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for nonrecurring costs, came to 74 cents per share, which is still 14 cents short of Wall Street expectations.
Revenue fell 1.8 percent to $15.49 billion, which edged out expectations. Same-store sales, usually considered a measure of a retailer's health, rose 3.7 percent for the U.S. home improvement business.
Last week, Home Depot Inc. reported a 5.6 percent surge in profit and rising revenue.
-- The Associated Press
Oklahoma tightens oil fracking rules
Oklahoma is tightening its rules for fracking after studying a new cluster of earthquakes in one of the hottest U.S. regions for drilling.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission announced that all explorers within certain areas must use equipment known as a seismic array, which detects movement underground. The regulators also lowered the quake threshold for pausing work from 3.0 magnitude to 2.5, a level where humans can feel the earth move. The mandated delay is for at least six hours.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, loosens hydrocarbons from shale by blasting water, sand and chemicals underground. Since December 2016, Oklahoma officials have counted 74 earthquakes of at least 2.5 magnitude that may be linked directly to fracking, Matt Skinner, a commission spokesman, said in a recent email.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 03/01/2018