Bernstein maintains Market Perform Rating on Caterpillar (CAT) as Orders Continue to Climb

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) ranks among the stocks in Bill Gates’ portfolio that analysts are watching. Bernstein SocGen Group maintained a Market Perform rating on Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) and raised its price target from $502 to $557 on October 30. The increase followed the company’s third-quarter performance, which showed gains in backlog and orders, mainly due to growth in the power generation division.

The company’s backlog jumped by $2.4 billion to $39.9 billion, which hints towards $19.1 billion in orders, a 5% increase quarter-over-quarter. The Energy & Transportation segment also performed well, with revenues of $8.397 billion, up 17% from $7.187 billion the year before. This expansion was fueled by increased sales volume in a variety of sectors, including power generation.

Despite this, tariffs caused negative impacts of almost $600 million in the third quarter, extending the full-year impact by $25 million to $1.675 billion.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) is a l‍eading gl‌obal p‌roducer of heavy machinery, manufacturing equi‍pment use‍d i⁠n construction and mining, along with di⁠esel and natur‍al gas en‍gines, industrial gas turbi‌n⁠es, and diesel⁠-​electric locomotives.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.