Even people who don't follow the stock market know the names General Electric (NYSE: GE) and 3M (NYSE: MMM), which speaks to the iconic nature of these two industrial giants.
But just knowing a company's name isn't enough reason to buy its stock. When you dig into the financial stories of these two companies, one stands out as a better investment option than the other.
General Electric's stock is down about 65% over the last five years. Shares are currently trading at roughly the same level as they did during the deep 2008-09 Great Recession. That's an important comparison period because it marks the start of a massive corporate overhaul for the industrial giant. Essentially, at the start of that financially-driven downturn, GE had allowed its finance arm to grow well beyond its core historical purpose of supporting the sale of GE's industrial products.
Source Fool.com