By Ted Mann And Chelsey Dulaney 

General Electric Co.'s first-quarter earnings report showed that CEO Jeff Immelt's strategy to exit banking and refocus on its industrial operations won't be all smooth sailing.

Revenues fell at three of the company's top four industrial units, the ones that make oil-and-gas equipment, jet engines and medical devices. Of those four, only its power-turbine business increased sales, but profits for the unit fell as several large orders were delayed, executives said.

Total industrial revenue fell 1%, hurt by the stronger dollar.

Industrial operating profits, however, rose 9% to $3.6 billion and margins improved. Mr. Immelt said the company was on track to deliver on the high end of a forecast of $1.10 to $1.20 in industrial per-share earnings for the year.

Shares of GE slid 0.6% to $27.12 in afternoon trading amid a broad market selloff.

"GE had a good quarter in a slow-growth and volatile environment," Mr. Immelt said. "We're seeing the world that we planned for."

The results highlight the tricky terrain GE will navigate once it completes Mr. Immelt's move away from financial services and back toward the business of heavy industry. GE's industrial equipment orders fell in the quarter, the fourth time in the past five quarters that GE hasn't grown in orders.

For GE, the future will look a lot more like the terrain that competitors, such as Honeywell International Inc., have had to cover in a period of slow global growth--without assistance from a profitable, if risky, banking arm.

Honeywell, whose businesses include aerospace components, chemicals and building control and alarm systems, cut its yearly revenue forecast and reported a 5% drop in sales, driven by the collapse in oil prices as well as foreign exchange woes. Profit rose 11% to $1.12 billion.

Shares of Honeywell fell 1.6% to $102.25.

Chief Executive Dave Cote told investors that momentum in the company's businesses started to pick up toward the end of the first quarter, and said he believed the U.S. economy should gain strength as consumers continue to benefit from lower gas prices.

Mr. Cote said this is the longest the American consumer has gone without "spending kind of newfound riches." Just the same, he added, he wouldn't count on such a rebound, "because if I'm wrong, it's not a good place to be."

These are the calculations GE is embracing as it embarks on its boldest move yet to shed financial services and return to its industrial roots.

Last week, GE said it would pare down its GE Capital business significantly, unveiling plans to sell off about $165 billion of loans to borrowers like Wendy's franchisees, overseas consumers and private-equity firms. GE also said it would sell a $26 billion portfolio of investments in office buildings and other commercial property to buyers that include Blackstone Group LP and Wells Fargo & Co.

The plans represent one of the biggest strategic shifts in the 123-year history of the company. GE had warned it would book about $16 billion in charges in the quarter to repatriate cash and for impairments because of shortened hold periods.

Overall for the quarter ended March 31, GE had a loss of $13.6 billion, compared with a profit of $3 billion a year earlier. Excluding the one-time charge, net earnings would have fallen 7% to $2.8 billion.

GE held the line in its oil-and-gas business, where analysts were bracing for ugly results given the plunge in crude oil. The company reported a 3% decline in profit and an 8% drop in revenue.

Analysts who follow the company expect those returns to continue falling through the year as oil-production companies continue to slash capital expenditures, including on GE's oil-field equipment and services.

Oil-and-gas equipment orders fell 10% to $2.2 billion, following on a 15% drop in the fourth quarter of 2014. The unit's revenue from equipment sales fell by 13% in the first three months of this year, GE said. And, overall, the company reported a 9% drop in infrastructure equipment orders from "resource rich" countries, including those in the Middle East, Africa and Russia--regions that have seen economies seriously affected by the collapse in crude oil prices.

Meanwhile, GE Capital revenues fell 39% to $5.98 billion. The business has been a significant profit driver for the company, but it has fallen out of favor with investors, who fear it casts a pall on the company's industrial business.

Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com and Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

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