Last quarter’s earnings report from General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) wasn’t ‘great’ by almost any standard. But these days, any GE earnings report that isn’t worse on a year-over-year basis is a significant victory for GE stock holders.

That’s what Friday’s 4% advance from General Electric shares says anyway. Less than two weeks ago, GE was at a multi-year low, down more than 50% from its late-2016 peak. And investors were fully prepared to send it even lower on more bad news. Fortunately, they won’t have to. The future of General Electric stock looks reasonably promising, even if not exactly riveting.

Still, one more accolade may be needed to prove the bulk of the company’s meltdown is truly in the rear-view mirror.

GE Earnings Recap

For the quarter ending in March, General Electric turned $28.66 billion worth of revenue into an operating profit of 16 cents per share. The top line was 7% better than the year-ago comp of $26.88 billion, while per-share earnings were up 2 cents per share.

Perhaps better still, analysts were only modeling a profit of 12 cents per share and a top line of $27.58 billion, according to FactSet.

It was the first time GE earnings were better than expected in three quarters, prompting a sigh of relief from shareholders who’ve kept their faith in the company’s turnaround effort. There are plenty of lingering concerns though.

One is continued tepidness from GE’s all-important power division — the company’s biggest. That arm’s revenue of $7.22 billion, down 9% year-over-year, led to a 38% dip in profits. Things aren’t looking up anytime soon either. Orders for its power-related division fell 29%.

CEO John Flannery said of the company’s power business:

“Power is making progress on cost actions and operational and services execution, but the industry continues to be challenging and is trending softer than our forecast.”

At the other end of the spectrum, GE’s aviation business saw revenue grow 7% to $7.11 billion, while oil and gas revenue was up 74% to $5.4 billion. Healthcare sales of $4.7 billion grew 9% from Q1-2017’s total.

GE Earnings Not Enough for Some Analysts

In many regards the GE earnings report for the first quarter is a Rorschach test. Observers see what they want to in them.

Langenberg & Company analyst Brian Langenberg still sees a company that’s miles away from what it needs to be, saying (Note: quote is in the video.):

“Until you get power fixed — and they’re nowhere close to getting that fixed — the stock only goes so far…They’re not going to sell assets. It’s not the time to sell assets… there’s a lot of pressure on them to find ways to realize value on some of the larger business units, and that’s what I think we’ll be more important on the next few months.”

Flannery had mentioned late last year, shortly after taking the helm of GE, that asset sales were possible. That idea was significantly embellished early this year though, when it took more of a “breakup” tone.

Without any specific timeline or perhaps an aim to at least partially fix certain units so GE can sell them at more respectable values, investors are left guessing about such moves. As Langenberg intimated, it could be a long and frustrating wait for shareholders.

Bloomberg’s Karen Ubelhart is also not exactly inspired, suggesting Friday’s gain may mostly indicate relief that things weren’t worse. Ubelhart believes that the company’s full-year cash flow outlooks, which were reaffirmed, are subject to being lowered later in the year. This could mean another dividend cut or lowered profit guidance.

Other Analysts Are Optimistic

BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, however, see the glass as half-full, explaining:

“Most investors are missing the fact that industrial stocks should be an Overweight… at the end of the day we’re starting to see economic growth and earnings growth and earnings growth starting to come back into the company. The key thing we think looking at the near-term results was the cash flow. If the cash flow continues to generate, we’re in the belief that the dividend’s not going to be in jeapordy.”

Belski also believes “GE is one of the best contrarian names out there,” alluding to the fact that assumption, presumption and hysteria have largely superseded actual numbers and plausible outlooks. Friday’s report might start to normalize the discussion, and the stock’s price, again.

Bottom Line for GE Stock

The GE earnings report was a much-needed win for General Electric shareholders. More so on the psychological front than in terms of fiscal results. GE is a name that many investors and analysts have loved to hate, and the first quarter report should silence them at least for a while.

If General Electric really wants to convince the market it’s got a compelling future, it’s going to have to convince some of the right value hunters. Yes, that’s Warren Buffett more than any other.

While GE has been deemed an ‘ideal’ opportunity for the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett himself has said little on the matter. The only meaningful mention he’s made on the matter is January’s concession that “We’d buy GE at the ‘right number’.” He didn’t say what that number was. And for the record, GE stock is priced 20% lower now than it was then. There’s still no sign of heavy institutional buying.

Nevertheless, the presumed future of GE stock isn’t nearly as grim as it looked before Friday morning’s GE earnings report. If nothing else, this is the beginning of an opportunity to start climbing a wall of worry.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.