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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/ge-stocks-resurrection-could-accelerate-51547481422\nGE Stock’s ‘Resurrection’ Could Accelerate, Analyst Says\nTeresa Rivas\nJan. 14, 2019 10:57 am ET\nPhotograph by Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images\nGeneral Electric (GE) stock has rallied to start 2019, and William Blair thinks the momentum will continue.\nWhere we were: After falling 51% in the last 12 months, GE has at least had a better 2019 than most, rising nearly 18% since the start of the year.\nWhere we’re headed: Asset divestitures of a wider scale, coming in ahead of schedule, could make GE a much less risky stock, writes Heymann, improving investor sentiment.\nIn 2017, GE was the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and some investors thought it couldn’t get any worse for the beleaguered industrial. Then 2018 happened, and GE was removed from the Dow, and slid another 50%. However, there were signs of hope amid the rubble: The firm replaced its CEO with someone who had no ties to past management teams that performed so poorly, and even some of the staunchest bears relented.\nWilliam Blair’s Nicholas Heymann was never in that camp, as he’s long had a relatively upbeat outlook for GE. On Monday, in a report titled, “End of Apocalypse Scenarios Now at Hand; Look for Expanded Liquidity to Accelerate GE’s Resurrection and Rectify Risk Profile,” he reiterated an Outperform rating. The analyst believes the company is about to get a whole lot less risky.\nHeymann’s optimism rests on his belief that GE may likely sell much more of its noncore businesses than the company suggested when it lasted updated investors about its plans back in June. If it does close more asset sales, that would clear up some worries about GE’s financial position and underfunded liabilities, he thinks, as well as litigation risk.\n“We believe there is a rising likelihood GE may accelerate the timing and size of its original plans for the IPO of GE Healthcare, that prospects for GE Commercial Aviation Service (GECAS) to be sold at or above book value are now rising, and that the noncore 20% of GE Digital recently recast into a separate business could lead to it being monetized,” Hyemann writes. If GE is able to monetize these three assets ahead of schedule, it could boost the company’s liquidity by as much as $55 billion, he estimates—a figure that includes around $32 billion of incremental debt reduction and about $18 billion-$25 billion of incremental cash generation beyond GE’s June 2018 transformation plan.\nIf GE were to find itself with so much more cash on hand, it could then fund the roughly $10 billion of remaining underfunded loss reserves at GE Capital’s long-term health-care reinsurance, as well as right-size GE Power’s global large steam- and gas-turbine production capacity ahead of expectations, and shore up reserves for the litigation and government investigation liabilities it may face—all while still paying down debt, he writes.\nThat, of course, would make GE a much less risky stock, and thus Heymann believes investor perception of the stock is about to change for the better. A GE with fewer underfunded liabilities, a clearer ability to reduce leverage, and a better roadmap to bringing GE Power back to profitability in 2019 would be much more attractive—and a better financial position could help improve GE’s credit rating. In all, he believes the near-term narrative will be one of a safer GE, allowing the recent rally to continue.\nGE is down 0.7% to $8.88 in recent trading.\nNot everyone thinks the GE rally can last.\nGE’s CEO has every reason to want to keep it going, however.\nWrite to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com"