The recent volume of S&P 500 companies entering the U.S. Drone Industry gave me cause for great excitement this fall. In all the churn, it appears that there was one that slipped my scan: General Electric Company (GE).

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GE is among the most diversified megacompanies on the planet: the company is a Utility (it generates and transports electricity), a Consumer Staple (it invented the light bulb, for crying out loud), an Industrial (it manufactures large aircraft engines), and is now a Drone Manufacturer. As you can probably tell, I’m unusually excited about this addition to the DRONES U.S. Drone Market Index. {I don’t even own any stock in GE; I’m legitimately excited for what this means for the industry.}

This is not the first time GE has dipped its toes into the Drone Industry: it toyed with Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) in 2018 with its AirXOS project; however, the line of operation appears to have fizzled out during the recent pandemic. 

Through its subsidiary GE Aviation, the company partnered with Microdrones to produce a long-range LIDAR-capable microdrone. 

Why is the combination of LIDAR, long-range, and microdrones important? DIGITAL TWINS. Digital Twin technology is one of the emerging world-changing technical concepts, and I’ll make a note to myself to write a future article that explains why I believe this to be the case.

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As a company, GE has undergone some scrutiny in recent years: it has made some questionable mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and invested in lines of operation that turned out to be suboptimal decisions. Investors rightfully question the company’s future profitability, especially now that it is selling off several of its revenue-producing subsidiaries.

Fortunately, I am neither a Financial Advisor (FA) nor a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and I will not be giving you a Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation. I will simply be showing you the numbers, and you can conduct your own independent research to determine what is right for your objectives.

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Yield: 0.48%  Beta: 1.37

Although GE’s present yield is a dismal 0.3%, it was previously regarded as a stalwart of income stocks. Similar to how I treated The Boeing Company (BA), I will be listing GE in the Income Portfolio. The portfolio takes a minor hit due to poor recent GE performance, but I truly feel that this is the proper categorization.

Yield: 2.09%  Beta: 1.20

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I feel a bit sheepish that GE announced this line of effort in July 2021, and I am just now writing about it in October 2021. It simply got lost in the cacophony of Drone Industry news during that period, and I had a very busy Fall season because <insert lame excuse here>. I will attempt to correct myself, perhaps with the aid of yet another automated investing research tool. 

Final note: please invest wisely, and I always suggest consulting a qualified Financial Planning professional prior to investing your hard-earned dollars in any company. While it was not the case during this particular post, I do hold some long positions in stocks that I write about, and I will always strive to remain transparent to my readers.