General Electric, the world's second most valuable company, has reported a 14 per cent surge in first-quarter profits, beating Wall Street expectations.

The US-based firm said net income in the three months to March 31 was $4.04bn, or 39 cents per share, compared with $3.96bn, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total revenue for the quarter jumped 10 per cent to $37.8bn from $34.4bn a year ago.

The results were lifted by a $2.5bn gain from the sale of General Electric's remaining stake in insurer Genworth Financial.

"We had a strong performance in the quarter highlighted by double-digit growth in earnings, revenues and cash flow," said chief executive Jeff Immelt.

"Driven by demand for our industrial equipment, momentum in health care and continued performance in our financial services businesses, we achieved nine per cent organic revenue growth."

Total orders rose 33 per cent, including a 67 per cent increase for equipment and a 20 per cent jump for services.

Jeff Immelt, General Electric: "We had a strong performance in the quarter highlighted by double-digit growth in earnings, revenues and cash flow."

General Electric said five of its six businesses achieved double-digit earnings growth in the first quarter.

Income at General Electric's commercial finance unit jumped 27 per cent to $1.17bn, while profits at the company's health care department rose 21 per cent to $496m.

The firm's industrial and consumer finance businesses saw income surge 14 per cent to $600m and $836m respectively, while earnings at the infrastructure unit increased 11 per cent to $1.7bn.

However, the group's TV unit NBC Universal was less impressive. Profits fell 8 per cent to $654m from $709m a year ago.

During the first quarter, the company also repurchased 88 million shares of its own stock for about $3bn.

Looking ahead, the company said it expected strong profit growth in five of its six businesses in the second quarter.

General Electric also predicts that earnings per share from continuing operations will range from 46 cents to 48 cents per share.

"We are right on plan for the year," said Immelt.

"Our growth initiatives are performing well, our fundamentals are solid, our orders are up, and we have a healthy cash flow stream fueling our businesses and funding our share repurchase program.

"The company is well positioned going forward."

Shares in General Electric fell by 0.8 per cent following the announcement to $34.20.