Shares of General Electric just plunged to a fresh nine-year low, and one equity strategist says investors should take note of one particularly devilish level for the stock: $6.66.
GE tumbled as low as $8.15 on Friday after J.P. Morgan once again slashed its price target on the stock to $6 from $10 per share. The firm's analyst, Stephen Tusa, said the company's most recent quarterly earnings report was "worse than expected on almost all fronts."
Equity strategist Matt Maley of Miller Tabak told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Friday that he was targeting a move down to $6.66, the stock's closing low in early March 2009, around the time of the S&P 500's bottom in the wake of the financial crisis.
"J.P. Morgan has a $6 target on it, I'm going to put a $6.66 target on the stock. It's a weird, weird coincidence. We all remember that the lows in 2009 on the S&P 500 was 666. Well the closing low in GE back then was also $6.66. That's kind of a weird coincidence, but the real reason I'm worried about this is with a stock like this, it's not a situation where the baby's being thrown out with the bath water," Maley said.
In other words, he thinks the sell-off may be warranted.
"Even though the stock is very oversold on a very near-term basis, if you look at its weekly [relative strength index chart], it's not as oversold as it was on two other occasions in the last 12 months. So I think it's a risk-reward situation, and I think it's got to go lower before you want to buy it," he said.
For Erin Gibbs, portfolio manager with S&P Investment Advisory Services, buying the stock is not worth considering even as if appears inexpensive.
"Right now we just don't see an end to the negative announcements. They've made five announcements this year regarding their restructuring that have been negative, and we just haven't see any stabilization," she said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."
Gibbs said she's concerned for four reasons: the recent dividend cut to 1 cent, concerns surrounding the restructuring of its power business, ongoing investigations into the company's accounting practices and falling profit projections.
"For us, we just don't see that there's any reason to get in at this point until we see an end of negative news and declining earnings," Gibbs said.
General Electric shares closed lower by 6 percent on Friday, off session lows, at $8.58 per share.
GE told CNBC in a statement on Friday that "GE is a fundamentally strong company with a sound liquidity position."
