GE profit beats Street view, sees "upside" ahead

The largest U.S. conglomerate said on Friday net income attributable to common shareholders came to $1.87 billion, or 17 cents per diluted share per share, down 32 percent from $2.75 billion, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.

Profit from continuing operations came to 21 cents per share, above the 16 cents analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue declined 5 percent to $36.6 billion.

The world's biggest maker of jet engines and electricity-producing turbines has forecast roughly flat earnings this year as the U.S. economy recovers from its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

GE shares were up 1 percent, or 19 cents, at $19.69 in premarket trading. They have risen approximately 68 percent over the past year, outpacing the 40 percent rise of the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average .

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Derek Caney)