General Electric reported earnings on Friday that slightly exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, while the company’s big industrial business showed evidence of solid growth.

 

G.E., the nation’s largest industrial company, said that revenue in the industrial side of its business grew by 14 percent.

The revenue for the company as a whole fell 8 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $35.2 billion.

This year’s first quarter had no contribution from NBC Universal, which G.E. owned but sold a majority stake to Comcast. Excluding the revenue from NBC Universal in the year ago quarter, revenue increased by 4 percent and exceeded the average analysts’ estimate of $34.8 billion, as complied by FactSet Research.