Industrials

Caterpillar (CAT) posted Q1 adjusted earnings Thursday of $5.60 per share, up from $4.91 a year earlier. Analysts polled by Capital IQ expected $5.13. Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 was $15.8 billion, down from $15.86 billion a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Capital IQ expected $15.99 billion. Shares of the company declined more than 3% in recent premarket activity on Thursday.

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: CAT shares are sliding today following the company’s Q1 print, with a beat on EPS being overshadowed by a nearly $200M miss on sales. We believe that high expectations were baked into the share price prior to the Q1 release. We trim our target to $335 from $360, 15x our 2025 EPS outlook of $22.35 (in line with the previous forecast; 2024 EPS lifted by $0.47 to $21.88), slightly below CAT’s long-term historical forward average. CAT posted Q1 operating EPS of $5.60 (+14% Y/Y), $0.47 above consensus. Revenues were roughly flat Y/Y, with falling volumes in Construction and Resource industries being offset by pricing realization. Energy & Transportation was once again a bright spot, contributing $433M in sales growth. Earnings expansion was largely driven by gains in

Caterpillar is guiding to largely flat sales in 2024 on the expectation the company’s dealers won’t expand their equipment inventories much this year after increasing them by $700 million in 2023. Caterpillar says flat inventories at dealers will be a “headwind” for the company’s sales growth in 2024. Caterpillar’s 1Q sales slipped 1% from the same quarter a year earlier, driven by 5% drop in construction equipment sales and 7% decrease in mining equipment. The declines were partially offset by a 7% rise in sales of engines for energy and transportation. Shares sink 7% at $337.66.

Caterpillar (CAT) reported mixed first-quarter results versus a year ago impacted by lower sales volume, while the heavy equipment manufacturer expects revenue to be down on an annual basis in the current three-month period. The company reported adjusted earnings of $5.60 a share for the March quarter, up from $4.91 the year before, and ahead of the Capital IQ-polled consensus of $5.13. Revenue edged down to $15.8 billion from $15.86 billion, below the Street’s view for $15.99 billion. The stock declined 8.5% in Thursday trading. “Sales remained about flat compared to the prior year as lower volume was largely offset by favorable price realization,” Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield said during an earnings call, according to a Capital IQ transcript. “The decline in volume was primarily due to lower sales to users,” led by weakness in Europe for construction industries. Machinery, energy and transportation revenue dipped 1% to $14.96 billion.

The following is a summary of the Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: Caterpillar reported flat Q1 sales and revenues of $15.8 billion compared to last year. Adjusted operating profit increased by 5% to $3.5 billion. The company announced record adjusted profit per share at $5.60, an increase of 14%. Generated a free cash flow of $1.3 billion for the quarter. Notable increase in the backlog, with a value at $27.9 billion, up $400 million from the previous quarter. Performance was fueled by record deployment of $5.1 billion cash for share repurchases and dividends. Business Progress: Most end markets exhibited healthy demand for Caterpillar’s products and services. Anticipates a revenue increase in the Energy & Transportation business line, offset slightly by a softened European market in Construction Industries. The company forecasted the adjusted operating profit margin and ME&T free cash flow for 2024 to be in