Al Root
Thomas Edison would be proud. It took a while, but the company he helped found is finally at a new record value.
There is, of course, no longer a single General Electric. Instead, GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp, brought in to turn around the ailing conglomerate, split the company into three, leaving GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, and GE HealthCare Technologies.
With GE Aerospace and GE Vernova recently hitting new 52-week highs, the combined value of the three companies is about $620 billion, up from about $540 billion at the end of 2025.
It's a record. GE was once the most valuable company on the planet, with a market capitalization of about $600 billion in 2000, at the height of the dot.com boom.
Since then, there have been asset sales, stock buybacks, and breakups. GE Aerospace stock, which is essentially the legacy General Electric, hit a new all-time high on Sept. 15. Shares closed at $292.97, eclipsing the old high of $287.15 reached on Aug. 28, 2000, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
If GE were still a conglomerate, it would rank 14th behind Exxon Mobil and ahead of Visa. It would also be the most valuable industrial company in the U.S., a title GE Aerospace still holds. Although SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace and defense company, is worth $1.25 trillion, it isn't publicly traded yet.
Hitting a new high doesn't really do anything for investors. It is a sign that two of the businesses, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova, have strong momentum.
GE Aerospace is a dominant supplier of jet engines, and demand for commercial air travel remains robust. Almost 90% of analysts covering the company rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.
GE Vernova supplies power generation equipment, and demand for electricity is growing faster than it has in decades due to the explosion in AI computing. About three-quarters, or 75%, of analysts covering that stock rate shares Buy.
GE HealthCare has run into some hiccups with tariffs and competition. It's still relatively popular on Wall Street, with 60% of analysts rating shares Buy. It trades for about 16 times earnings expected over the coming 12 months. GE Aerospace and GE Vernova trade for about 55 and 45 times, respectively.
The stock market is mostly concerned with the future and not the past. Still, it's worthwhile to look back sometimes and remember what's happened.
It's been a long road back for GE. Now, its darker days are in the rearview mirror.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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February 20, 2026 16:57 ET (21:57 GMT)
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