General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) reported Q3 earnings were $0.38 per share, up 6% from year ago levels and a penny ahead of the analyst consensus on Capital IQ. Revenue was $36.2 billion, up 1% from last year's quarter and shy of the Street view of $36.8 billion. GE's backlog of equipment and services at the end of the quarter was a record $250 billion, up $21 billion over the year-ago period. During the quarter GE completed the IPO of its North American Retail Finance business, Synchrony Financial, the first step of a planned, staged exit from the business. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) said it is targeting a complete exit from Synchrony Financial through a split-off transaction in late 2015.In the third quarter GE also agreed to sell its Appliances business to Electrolux for $3.3 billion, bringing total announced dispositions to $4.7 billion for the year. The sale is expected to generate an approximate after-tax gain of $0.05-$0.07 per share at closing. Both transactions are subject to customary regulatory and other approvals. GE continues to work through approvals for its acquisition of Alstom's Power and Grid businesses, targeted to close in 2015. GE expects Alstom to be accretive to earnings in 2015, and add $0.06-$0.09 per share in 2016. Through these transactions, GE is executing on its strategy to achieve 75% of its earnings from its Industrial businesses by 2016.The company said it is on track to meet its goal of $1 billion or more in structural cost-out for the year, with $674 million of cost-out through the third quarter. It also said it is on track to meet its 2014 goal of $14-$17 billion in CFOA. GE ended the quarter with $90 billion of consolidated cash and cash equivalents. The company has returned $8.4 billion to shareowners year-to-date, including $6.6 billion of dividends and $1.8 billion of stock buyback.Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) said it made plans to conclude production and pursue a sale of one of its three manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico. The manufacturing site, located in Guayama, Puerto Rico, will remain in operation until the end of 2015. All of the approximately 100 full-time non-contracted employees currently working in Guayama will be offered employment at Lilly's Carolina (Puerto Rico) location. Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) trades in a 52-week of $48.51 to $67.14.NewLink Genetics Corp (NASDAQ:NLNK), the biopharmaceutical begins Phase I trials of an Ebola vaccine by the Canadian Public Health Agency at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland. Earlier this week, the Public Health Agency of Canada inked a licensing agreement with NewLink to sell an Ebola vaccine that would prevent infection of healthy individuals. Canada contracted with NewLink because it was the only company that provided a viable offer of commercialization. The agreement between Canada and NewLink provides licensing fees and royalties that flow back to the Canadian government from NewLink Genetics Corp (NASDAQ:NLNK). The vaccine is expected to race through the regulatory process as the World Health Organization has fast-tracked the trials in order to stop the spread of the disease. Currently trading at $31.50, the stock is trading above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages at $24.81 and $26.59, respectively.
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