Christopher Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images
John Flannery, chief executive officer of GE.
General Electric’s painful year as been a boon for investors who have placed big bets against the legacy industrial conglomerate.
And Wall Street’s outlook for the company’s fourth quarter isn’t getting any rosier.
GE has proven to be this year’s second-most profitable short trade, according to financial technology firm S3 Partners. It is the third most shorted stock in the worldwide industrial conglomerate sector, behind Toshiba and 3M.
Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3’s head of research, estimates profits on the GE short to be $673 million this year, a 36 percent gain. A short sale involves selling borrowed stock, hoping it will fall in price so the stock can be returned later at a profit.
GE shares are on pace for their worst week of trading this year, down 6.4 percent, as the stock has been cut in half over the last 12 months.
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