And approximately $100B of that $111B is intangible. So, some would note that is $10B of tangible equity with $550B in debt.
Well without getting into a debate about the quality of tangible and intangible assets on a balance sheet lets look at the big picture.
A GE Bull can look at the companies financials and conclude.
This is a 125 year old company with a history of growing profits, dividends and developing management. It is still very profitable, has a triple AAA credit rating (at least today)., and the company is selling for roughly book value. Certainly, the GE will be impacted by the great recession but it survived the great depression and even if it is force to slash its dividend in 1/2 I am still getting 2-3x on money that I'd get for a Treasury bond or CD..
A GE Bear can say GE is really an unregulated loan sharking operation, with a large collection of other business that are probably profitable but who knows. GE's balance sheet and profit statements are the work of creative accounting. If the company isn't technically insolvent it will soon be in the furture when hundreds of billions of loans that GE capital has on its books default.
For the last year or so GE Bears have had the more believable story according to Mr. Market.
In contrast when I look at Ford, I only see the bear story. This is company that lost 14 billion last year, and hasn't had a profitable year since 2005. The balance sheet is saddle with a mountain of debt and its only assets are things like Volvo which in world with a surplus of auto capacity aren't in high demand. Unless the economy recovers dramatically the only way it will survive is with government help which will almost certainly wipeout shareholders ala AIG.
As far as can tell the only reason to buy Ford stock is the greater fool theory, somebody want to make a case for owning the stock over the long-term?
