GE Earnings Rise but Sales Decline

General Electric Co. said Thursday that its third-quarter earnings rose 3.2% and sales fell for a second straight quarter as slower growth hurt its plastics, appliances and NBC broadcasting units.

Shares of GE, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, rose $1.04 to close at $38.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Net income at the company increased to $3.28 billion, or 33 cents a share, from $3.18 billion, or 32 cents, in the year-earlier period. The results matched the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. Sales dropped 8% to $29.5 billion, partly because of GE’s exit from some finance businesses.

Growth at its power and medical-imaging units is helping to mitigate the effects the Sept 11 terrorist attacks and the slowing economy on the firm’s other units.

Insurance losses related to the attacks cut $400 million, or 4 cents a share, from profit in the quarter.

The World Trade Center and the planes used in the attacks that destroyed the towers were insured by GE. Profit would have risen 16% without the $400 million in losses, the company said.

Profit fell at six of the eight business segments for which the Fairfield, Conn.-based company provides information.

NBC, which agreed Thursday to acquire Telemundo Communications Group Inc., saw profit decline 13% in the quarter as revenue dropped 45%.

The network was hurt by the suspension of advertising during continuous news coverage after the attacks. Results compared with a year-earlier period, when it broadcast the Olympic games.

GE’s stock had dropped about 45% in the 12 months before Chief Executive Jeff Immelt reassured investors at a Sept. 21 meeting that profit would rise at least 10% this year and next. He reiterated the forecast Thursday.

Since the meeting, its shares have risen 28%, though the stock has fallen 31% in the last year.