The Zhitong Finance App learned that GE Aerospace (GE.US), the legal entity left behind after completing the split and the core asset of the aerospace business, released its latest performance report before the US stock market on Thursday. The company raised its full-year performance forecast. The profit performance exceeded Wall Street analysts' unanimous expectations, showing that this jet engine manufacturer, one of the world's largest jet engine manufacturers, was able to avoid disruptions related to Iran's war and fully grasp the growing demand for international travel during the FIFA World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada.
According to the company's earnings statement released on Thursday, this year's adjusted earnings per share are expected to be between $7.65 and $7.85, higher than the previously high forecast range of $7.40, while also significantly exceeding analysts' average expectations of about $7.56. The company also raised free cash flow, revenue growth, and operating profit performance guidelines.
The company's “future performance outlook”, which is most focused on the market, is not a minor correction, but an overall major overhaul. GE Aerospace (GE Aerospace) raised the 2026 adjusted revenue growth rate to more than ten percentage points from the previous low double digits; raised the operating profit guideline from US$9.85 billion to US$10.55 billion to US$10.55 billion to US$10.75 billion; adjusted EPS was raised from US$7.10-7.40 to US$7.65 to US$7.85. The median value of US$7.75 was not only higher than the market's expectations of US$7.56, but also increased by about 22% from US$6.37 in 2025. The free cash flow guideline was raised sharply from US$8 billion to US$8.4 billion to US$8.9 billion, with a median increase of about 18% over 2025.
The company's forecasts have been raised across the board, indicating that demand for air travel will remain strong despite market turmoil caused by trade disputes, rising inflation, and the geopolitical conflict between the US and Iran. The company operates under the name “GE Aerospace” and has achieved seven performance increases since January 2024, and its demand for core aerospace spare parts and maintenance services shows little sign of weakening.
The company's adjusted earnings per share for the second quarter were $2.02, higher than analysts' average expectations of $1.86. Adjusted revenue jumped 24% year over year to US$12.63 billion.
CEO Larry Culp said in a statement that the better-than-expected quarterly results were due to “strong commercial service business growth” and a sharp rise in engine deliveries in the first half of the year.
The company also warned in a regulatory filing that it expects “supply chain restrictions and inflation to continue, and we are continuing to take action to mitigate their impact.”
The company's adjusted operating profit for the second quarter increased 18% year-on-year to US$2,746 billion, and free cash flow increased 43% to US$3,027 billion, which is significantly faster than the profit growth rate, indicating that revenue related to the after-sales service business has strong cash conversion capacity. Orders increased 17% year over year to 16.5 billion US dollars, and the company's total backlog of orders exceeded 210 billion US dollars, providing high visibility into future revenue and profits.
Before regular trading in the New York stock market began, as of 6:49 a.m., the company's stock price fell less than 1%. By the close of Wednesday, the stock had accumulated gains of about 17% this year, outperforming the 11% increase in the S&P 500 index.
Calp has built GE Aerospace into a company with extremely stable performance in an industry subject to occasional sharp fluctuations. In recent years, this once complex enterprise has narrowed its focus to the aviation and defense sectors through a lengthy split process, during which time it divested the energy and healthcare business.
While this move has benefited the company, it has also made it more vulnerable to turbulence in the air travel market. GE Aerospace has indicated this year that the fuel supply situation and the reduction in global economic growth expectations may have an impact in the short term.
In particular, Calp has become an important industry voice pushing the US government to lower tariffs. He said that reducing tariffs will help promote greater development in this global industry. The CEO said in a recent interview that the company “almost every day” is consulting with the Pentagon or the White House to increase production, and “we fully support the president's goal of making sure we deliver the best products to our fighters as quickly as possible.”
The company continued to invest in new technology and completed testing of a hybrid electric engine system at its Ohio facility in June. The engine was developed through NASA's electrified power system flight demonstration project, and the company said the next step will be to enter the flight testing phase.
Its aerospace research center in upstate New York recently demonstrated an aerospace industry application powered by artificial intelligence technology that can generate a complete design layout for a hypersonic press engine in seconds. GE Aerospace believes this technology is expected to significantly shorten product design cycles and reduce costs.
What are GE Aerospace's connections with General Electric and GE Vernova?
GE Aerospace and GE Vernova (GEV.US) both originated from the original American industrial giant General Electric, but now they are independent listed companies. General Electric first spun off GE Healthcare (GEHC.US) in January 2023, then split the energy business GE Vernova on April 2, 2024; after the spin-off was completed, the remaining parent company officially transformed into GE Aerospace (GE Aerospace) and continued to use GE's New York Stock Exchange code “GE”.
Therefore, GE Aerospace is not a newly spun off subsidiary, but the legal and listed entity of the former General Electric continues after completing the split; GE Vernova was independently listed and traded in April 2024.
The business and investment logic of these major companies born out of General Electric has also been completely divided. GE Aerospace focuses on commercial and military aviation engines, spare parts and maintenance services, and the core profit is high-viscosity after-sales cash flow brought about by huge installed capacity; GE VerNova undertakes the original GE's gas power generation, wind power, power grid and electrification business. Currently, gas turbines, which are extremely scarce in AI data center construction around the world, are an important business. Their valuation is more driven by global electricity demand, AI data center construction process, gas power generation expansion, and grid upgrades.
The biggest difference between GE Aerospace and General Electric in the past is that the business has shrunk from a diversified industrial complex to a pure aerospace company. The original GE spanned the fields of aero engines, gas power generation, wind power, power grids, medical equipment, and finance.
GE Aerospace's core business can basically be summarized as “complete aero engine+full life cycle after-sales service+military propulsion technology”. The company is currently divided into two major business segments: commercial engines and services (CES), which designs and manufactures engines for narrowbody, wide-body, branch line and business jets, representing products such as LEAP, CFM56, GenX, GE90 and GE9X, and earns continuous revenue through spare parts sales, engine overhauls, long-term service agreements, etc.; the second is defense and propulsion technology (DPT), which covers military aviation engines, key aviation systems, advanced propulsion and additive manufacturing technology. Its installed base of about 50,000 commercial engines and 30,000 military engines makes after-sales service account for about 70% of the company's total revenue. Therefore, GE Aerospace does not simply rely on the delivery of new engines, but has a clear “equipment first, decades of maintenance and monetization” business model.