General Electric Co. is scheduled to release first-quarter earnings before the bell on Friday, and the industrial giant is expected to signal plans to leverage its balance sheet for further acquisitions. Earnings: Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting GE to report earnings of 19 cents a share, unchanged from the year-earlier period, but well below the 52 cents reported for the fourth quarter. Estimize, a crowdsourcing platform that gathers estimates from Wall Street analysts, as well as buy-side analysts, hedge-fund managers, company executives, academics and others, is forecasting EPS of 20 cents, based on 52 estimates. GE has beaten on EPS for five of the past six quarters. Revenue: FactSet analysts are expecting revenue of $28.185 billion, down from $29.356 billion a year ago. Estimize is forecasting revenue of $28.854 billion. GE has missed sales estimates for five of the past six quarters. What is your forecast?