General Electric Co.'s (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) first-quarter profit rose slightly on better industrial orders, but investors will have to wait until next year to see a return to double-digit earnings growth, the U.S. conglomerate said on Thursday.
Orders for health-care equipment such as ultrasound surged 15 percent to $2.4 billion in the quarter.

"Total industrial orders for the quarter grew 20 percent, building on our fourth-quarter momentum," Chairman Jeff Immelt said in a statement.

GE posted earnings of $3.24 billion, or 32 cents a share, for the first quarter, a penny above the average estimate among analysts polled by Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.

GE shares rose to $31.70 in pre-market trade on the INET electronic brokerage system, from $31.40 at Wednesday's close on the New York Stock Exchange.

Profit was up less than 1 percent from $3.21 billion, or 32 cents a share, before the effect of an accounting change a year earlier. Including the accounting change, the prior year's earnings were just shy of $3 billion, or 30 cents per share.

Immelt said GE is on track to hit the top of its profit forecast of 37 cents to 39 cents a share for the second quarter.

He also said GE was in position to produce double-digit earnings growth in 2005 thanks to its acquisition of health-care company Amersham, the merger of its NBC network with Vivendi Universal Entertainment, and the planned initial public offering of part of its Genworth Financial unit.

First-quarter revenue rose 10 percent from a year earlier, to $33.4 billion from $30.5 billion. That topped estimates of $32.22 billion, according to Reuters Research.

GE raised the low end of its full-year 2004 earnings forecast, according to a presentation posted on its Web site. Its new forecast range is $1.59 to $1.65 a share, compared with $1.55 to $1.65 previously.

Analysts' average forecast is $1.59 a share, according to Reuters Research.