General Electric acknowledged this week that it will probably need to trim additional costs in order to reach its profit goals for the year.
GE earlier this year said it planned to cut $2 billion in expenses over the following two years amid pressure to bolster profits from prominent investor Trian Fund Management. The industrial giant set a 2018 profit target of $2 per share three years ago and shed a wide-range of non-core businesses in recent years.
Analysts, however, still project that GE's profit will only hit $1.89 per share, The Wall Street Journal reported.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt told an investor conference Wednesday that although the $2 per share target was still attainable, it was at the higher end of company expectations due to continued sluggishness in the oil and gas sector.
“If we wanted to take it off the page, we would have taken it off the page," Immelt said of maintaining the company’s goal, according to the Journal. "And we didn't want to."
Details of potential additional cuts were not available, but Immelt said that GE is "managing enough acquisitions right now" and appeared to rule out further major divestments.
