GE announced its board of directors has determined to set the company’s quarterly dividend to a projected payout of $.12 per outstanding share of the company’s stock. This represents a 50% reduction from the current quarterly dividend of $.24. This change will be effective beginning with the board’s next dividend declaration, which is expected to occur in December.

“We understand the importance of this decision to our shareowners and we have not made it lightly. We are focused on driving total shareholder return and believe this is the right decision to align our dividend payout to cash flow generation,” said John Flannery, chairman and CEO of GE. “The dividend remains an important component of GE’s capital allocation framework. With this action and others that we will be discussing this morning, we are acting with urgency to make GE simpler and stronger to drive growth and create more value for our shareowners.”