GE, 3M, RTX, Verizon: Earnings Rundown

General Electric (GE) and 3M (MMM) shares jump after both companies topped their respective earnings expectations and raised guidance. Aerospace developer RTX (RTX) stock moves higher Tuesday afternoon following an earnings beat and announcing a $10 billion share buyback plan. Lastly, Verizon (VZ) stock is on pace for its best-performing day since October 2008 after beating third-quarter earnings estimates.

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman take a look at several of Tuesday's top trending stocks.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We are watching some key industrial names, in particular General Electric and 3M.

Both of those companies beating estimates and raising guidance.

GE getting an extra boost, as it announced it is spinning out the aerospace business.

That will be the remaining piece of GE, right?

Renova is going to leave the company, as of-- they're targeting the second quarter of next year there.

3M also sort of lapping some legal costs that it had in the past, and trying to push past that.

And the CEO of that company, of 3M, talking about momentum through strong operational execution.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah.

A couple-- one is GE is having a nice pop today.

But it's been a nice year, if you've been in GE.

That stock has roared more than 70%.

But I think part of the story-- let's raise its forecast for profit and free cash flow.

Investors love hearing that.

That's always a good one.

Big story here though, too, is more air travel means good news for its aerospace business, right?

And of course, GE makes those jet engines, makes the power generation equipment.

Citi's saying-- telling their clients GE is well-positioned for continued healthy results.

And investors clearly like what they sell here today.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

And conversely, when it comes to 3M, that company focusing on cutting costs.

And those shares have gone down this year, unlike GE.

So a little bit of a relief, perhaps today, from those numbers.

JOSH LIPTON: Exactly.

Not great, but enough to beat.

And that sent the shares higher.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, exactly.

JOSH LIPTON: All right.

Let's also check out shares of another mover here.

RTX, formerly known as Raytheon.

Defense giant reporting better-than-expected results.

And the news, Wall Street is really liking a $10 billion, that's with a B, share buyback.

So this one, also an interesting mover today.

So profit beats, Julie.

Company announced that big buyback.

Company-- remember, it did announce, I guess, these engine flaws over the summer, if you remember that headline.

The jet engines need inspections for possibly, I guess, problematic components.

And that was going to impact Airbus.

But the CEO saying that the expected financial impact is going to be in line with the previous disclosed range.

In other words, no new news.

And I think that's part of what you're seeing.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes.

He had talked about a charge, that the company was going to take a $5.4 billion in a pre-tax charge because of those Pratt and Whitney engine flaws.

So as you say, that being in line with estimates.

The company's Raytheon unit.

It still has a unit that I guess is called Raytheon, which is Missiles Defense and Space.

There, it had 3% sales growth here.

And the company's Collins Aerospace had sales growth of 17%.

So it did have some areas where it did see some strength there.

But sort of like 3M, there was a bit of an overhang situation in this case from those engines, those Pratt and Whitney engines.

And then, let's round out the biggies that we were watching today.

Another Dow component that we've been keeping an eye on is Verizon.

The stock on track for its best day since October of 2008.

And that's after the telecom giant reported better-than-expected results.

So I think when we look at these companies we've been talking about, if there's a through line here, it's sort of legacy companies, right?

And maybe relief being expressed in a number of different ways for these companies.

In the case of Verizon, what we've seen from it and from AT&T is better-than-expected growth, or at least smaller-than-expected losses, depending on the types of customers that we're talking about here.

The company added 100,000 mobile phone subscribers, which is better than estimated, although a lot of those gains were business customers, interestingly enough.

JOSH LIPTON: So it's a night-- I mean, listen.

That's a big, big move on today.

But for year-to-date, it's been tough.

I mean, that stock is still well in the red.

Q3 earnings beat.

They also raised guidance for the year looking for free cash flow.

Now it looks like above $18 billion.

But as you said, it added net 100,000 mobile phone subscribers.

That was led by business.

I did hear some folks saying, though, that perhaps implies Verizon is at least shedding market share.

That's how they interpreted it.

And I think maybe that's how investors are seeing it too.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, a couple of other quick notes.

The company has been raising prices, right?

There was sort of a race to the bottom, in terms of the phone carriers offering discounts.

That seems to have reversed, at least in part, with these companies raising prices.

And remember also, Verizon spent a lot on its 5G buildout.

And that didn't necessarily bear fruit, although maybe there's some early signs of that at this point with those subscriber gains.

We'll see.

JOSH LIPTON: Investors like [INAUDIBLE] today.