GE ekes past expectations as transportation revenue slides

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General Electric reported a decline in quarterly net income on Thursday, hurt by lower revenue in its transportation business that sells locomotives, but the U.S. conglomerate's overall industrial profits rose by 12 percent.

First-quarter net earnings fell to $3 billion, or 30 cents per share, from $3.53 billion, or 34 cents per share, a year ago, when the company's results were boosted by its sale of NBCUniversal.

After the earnings announcement, the company's shares rose in pre-market trading. (Click here to get the latest quotes for GE.)

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 32 cents a share on $34.36 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Last month, federal investigators opened two investigations into the company's credit card business, just as General Electric is attempting to spin it off through an initial public offering. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created under Dodd-Frank, is investigating the credit-card business called Synchrony Financial for possible violations of consumer finance laws.

Some analysts and investors blame finance unit GE Capital, of which Synchrony is a segment, for the hits the company's stock has taken since the 2008 financial crisis. Abandoning finance-as well as some other segments outside GE's core industrial businesses-could help restore profitabilty and boost share price, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

- By Reuters. CNBC contributed to this article.