Caterpillar (CAT) ended the recent trading session at $440.44, demonstrating a +1.03% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.13% for the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.27%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.07%.
Coming into today, shares of the construction equipment company had gained 5.65% in the past month. In that same time, the Industrial Products sector gained 1.77%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.71%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Caterpillar in its forthcoming earnings report. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $4.56, signifying a 11.80% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $16.7 billion, up 3.66% from the prior-year quarter.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $17.91 per share and a revenue of $64.76 billion, indicating changes of -18.22% and -0.07%, respectively, from the former year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Caterpillar. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 1.82% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Caterpillar presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Caterpillar's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 24.34. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 23.88.
It is also worth noting that CAT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.65. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry had an average PEG ratio of 5.1 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 226, putting it in the bottom 9% of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Caterpillar Inc. (CAT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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