NEW YORK—With General Electric’s (GE.N) decision to break up into three separate companies, investors who have held the stock through a long, troubled period may be hoping the move will give the conglomerate’s underperforming shares a jolt. The 129-year-old industrial conglomerate announced on Tuesday it would split into three businesses focusing on aviation, energy and healthcare. read more GE shares jumped as much as 7 percent after the announcement and hit their highest level since May 2018. The stock then pared its gains and was up about 3 percent in afternoon trade. Once the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, GE’s shares have grown steadily less relevant in the wider stock market for the past two decades. Here is a closer look at GE in the markets: In 2000, GE’s market value hovered around $600 billion, according to Refinitiv Datastream. But a number of struggles over the years—including the 2008 …