BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co reported a sharply higher profit than Wall Street had forecast and sees "potential for upside" to its earlier forecast of flat 2010 results.
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 <.DJI>.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Derek Caney)
