In April, the company announced an aggressive timetable for shedding most of GE Capital, its once-mammoth finance arm. At the time, G.E. sold off its commercial real estate business as one step in a program the company said would involve selling more than $200 billion in assets from GE Capital by 2018 — a “historic pivot,” as Mr. Immelt puts it, so that 90 percent of the company’s profits will come from its industrial business. In some years before the 2008 financial collapse, more than half of G.E.’s profit came from finance.

Yet the financial asset sales are going faster than anticipated. The company is on track to sell off $100 billion in assets this year alone, and the entire program will probably be completed by 2017, a year earlier than planned, said Jeffrey S. Bornstein, G.E.’s chief financial officer.

G.E. reported a net loss of $1.36 billion for the quarter. But the quarterly loss resulted from a $4.33 billion charge for shedding finance operations. Operating earnings per share, including the contribution from financial services linked to the industrial businesses, rose 19 percent, to 31 cents a share. That was above the average estimate of Wall Street analysts of 28 cents a share, as compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Industry analysts and investors now focus mainly on the performance of the company’s industrial business. In the quarter, operating profit from its industrial business grew 5 percent, to $4.4 billion, and it was up 11 percent before currency translations. Industrial revenue, at $26.9 billion, was flat, though up 5 percent without the currency effect.

The company has forecast double-digit earnings growth for the industrial side of the corporation. But on Friday, G.E. said it expected the profit contribution from its industrial operations to be $1.13 to $1.20 a share this year. Earlier, its forecast was $1.10 to $1.20 a share.

G.E.’s total revenue, including GE Capital, was $32.8 billion. But the revenue most closely followed by analysts — for the industrial businesses and financial services related to the industrial side — was $29.66 billion for the quarter, above the average forecast of analysts of $28.70 billion.

Mr. Immelt’s plan to hone the G.E. portfolio and expand its industrial business is facing regulatory challenges in both Europe and the United States. In Europe, antitrust officials filed a formal objection last month to G.E.’s $17 billion deal to buy the energy business of Alstom. The regulators fear that the combined business would hold a sizable share of the European market for large gas turbines, allowing it to raise prices sharply.