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At ING Groep (ticker: ING), the largest bank in the Netherlands, the third quarter brought a flurry of trouble, and a bet on Tesla (TSLA) that seems to be paying off. Other moves, such as a vast increase in its holdings of General Electric (GE), haven’t gone as well.

ING’s chief financial officer left, and the lender agreed to pay a record $900 million to settle a Dutch probe into an alleged failure to monitor for money laundering. A probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was closed without any action.

During the same three months, though, the bank doubled its stake in Tesla, and increased its bet on General Electric (GE) 10-fold, according to a filing ING made with the SEC. ING also sold off investments in Comcast (CMCSA) and Bank of America (BAC), slashing positions in those names by 81% and 28%, respectively.

The bank didn’t respond to a request for comment on its third-quarter trades.

So far in the fourth quarter, shares of the maker of electric cars have surged nearly 33%, although that gain has been offset by a slide in ING’s dramatically increased bet on GE.

Near the end of the third quarter, the electric-car maker’s chief accounting officer left after less than a month on the job, a departure that follows the short tenures of his predecessor and that of the chief financial officer. Last month, our colleagues at The Wall Street Journal reported a “deepening criminal probe” into the company. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining whether Tesla misstated information about car production, and misled investors about the company’s business, according to the Journal.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Journal’s report.

ING liked what it saw in Tesla, nonetheless, and doubled its stake to 29,343 shares in the third quarter, a decision that was rewarded when the company reported strong third-quarter earnings.

GE is another story. Shares of the conglomerate have tumbled wider than 19%, excluding dividend payments, since the end of the third quarter. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. GE had sought to turn the page on underperformance, kicking off the fourth quarter by naming Larry Culp as CEO.

Shares had slumped 16% in the third quarter as Culp’s predecessor, John Flannery , contended with mixed receptions to a better-than-expected earnings report and problems with turbines the company makes. Flannery had even proposed a plan to dismantle the company.

ING snatched up GE stock in the third quarter, increasing its investment to 663,702 shares by the end of September from 66,389 held at the end of the second. That has proved a painful decision.

ING may have done better by lightening up on its investment in the second-largest bank in the U.S. by consolidated assets. It owned 11.3 million shares of Bank of America at the end of September, down from 15.5 million shares at the end of June. Bank of America rose 5% in the third quarter, but the stock has slipped nearly 2% since then. It’s down 1% for 2018 when excluding dividend payments. Strong third-quarter earnings hasn’t moved the needle much.

Barron’s is bullish on Bank of America, however. We wrote two weeks ago that we think it’s a “standout,” that “has one of the better earnings outlooks among its peers.”

ING also cut back on another stock that’s in the red for 2018. Media giant Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, was under pressure earlier this year as it moved in February to acquire European pay-TV firm Sky. Comcast succeeded in the endeavor, but only after raising its offer to head off 21st Century Fox (FOX). Comcast shares are down 2.4% year to date when excluding dividend payments.

The second half of the year has been kinder, however. Comcast shares are up about 8.7% so far in the fourth quarter, following an 8.6% gain in the third. ING slashed its Comcast stake to 1.1 million shares in the third quarter from 5.6 million shares.

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Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com