By Andrea Tse, TheStreet

General Electric (GE) earnings rose 57% to $3.22 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.06 billion a year earlier. Operating earnings in the quarter were 31 cents a share, meeting the estimates of analysts.

McDonalds (MCD) posted earnings of $1.45 a share in the third quarter on revenue of $7.2 billion, and global same-store sales were up 5%. The top and bottom line were an improvement from the year-ago quarter, when the fast-food giant earned $1.29 a share on revenue of $6.3 billion. Analysts had expected $1.43 per share on revenue of just over $7 billion.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) posted third-quarter earnings of $60.4 million, or $1.90 a share, beating Wall Street's estimate of $1.85. Chipotle said it expects new store openings for 2011 to come in at the high end of a range of 135 to 145, with same-store sales expected to grow in the low double digits.

Microsoft (MSFT) reported an in-line profit for its first quarter, with revenue rising 7% year over year because of strong sales from its business division. The software giant said it earned $5.74 billion, or 68 cents a share on revenue of $17.37 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 68 cents per share and revenue of $17.25 billion. (Microsoft owns and publishes MSN Money.)

Related Articles      

• 5 cars that reveal Chevrolet's future
• Buffett's favorites draw mixed reviews
• 5 dumbest things on Wall Street
  

Aerospace products and services company Honeywell (HON) raised its full-year sales outlook to $36.50 billion to $36.7 billion, up about 13% over last year's sales. The company also raised its earnings-per-share outlook to $4 to $4.05, up 33% to 35% over last year's earnings, after reporting third-quarter profit of $1.10 a share, which beat the average analyst estimate of $1 a share.

Verizon Communications (VZ) is targeting full-year adjusted earnings-per-share growth in the single digits ranging from 5% to 8% and single-digit revenue growth of 4% to 8% from the previous year. The company reported third-quarter profit of 56 cents a share, edging past the Wall Street consensus target of 55 cents a share.

Semiconductor company Altera (ALTR) said fourth-quarter revenue will likely be down 7% to 11% sequentially, after reporting third-quarter earnings of 57 cents a share, which missed Wall Street estimates by 2 cents. The third-quarter announcement didn't come as much of a surprise to investors, as the company had already lowered third-quarter guidance last month. During the quarter, Altera repurchased 4.8 million common shares.

Insurance company Chubb (CB) lowered its full-year operating income per-share guidance to a range of $5.10 to $5.20 from the previous range of $5.55 to $5.85 after reporting that its third-quarter operating income per share declined to 88 cents from $1.69 last year. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 78 cents a share.

BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) reported third-quarter earnings of 24 cents a share, meeting estimates.

• Find out what Jim Cramer is buying now

Flash memory maker SanDisk (SNDK) reported adjusted earnings of $292 million, or $1.20 a share, on revenue of $1.42 billion, up 15% year over year and 3% and a sequential basis. The average estimate of analysts was for a profit of $1.07 a share on revenue of $1.42 billion in the period.