General Electric Co. shares are getting hammered again Tuesday, one day after the industrial conglomerate unveiled a restructuring plan and slashed its dividend by half.
"We understand the importance of this decision to our shareowners and we have not made it lightly," chairman and chief executive John Flannery said Monday in a statement. "We are focused on driving total shareholder return and believe this is the right decision to align our dividend payout to cash flow generation."
A focus on total return would be welcome: on that metric, the past decade has been especially rough for GE shareholders. In fact, the company holds a dubious distinction among its Dow peers: it's the only index member that has a negative total return over the past 10 years.