Caterpillar Sales Slide on Weak Industrial Demand

Key Takeaways

• Caterpillar missed third-quarter earnings and revenue forecasts on a pullback in demand from the industrial sector.
• Sales of construction and resource industries declined, but they were up at its Energy & Transportation division.
• Caterpillar warned full-year sales and revenue will be "slightly lower" than its previous guidance.

Caterpillar (CAT) shares declined Wednesday when the construction equipment manufacturer posted worse-than-expected results and warned about the future on a slowdown in industrial sector demand.

The company reported third-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.17, with revenue falling 4% year-over-year to $16.11 billion. Both missed consensus estimates of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

Construction Industries unit sales dropped 9% to $6.35 billion on lower volumes and prices. They were down 10% to $3.03 billion at its Resource Industries segment, primarily because of declining purchases by end users. Sales rose 5% to $7.19 billion at its Energy & Transportation division as volumes and prices gained.

Caterpillar explained that it anticipates full-year sales and revenue will be "slightly lower" than its previous guidance, which it said at the time would be "slightly lower" than the previous year. The company's 2023 revenue came in at $67.06 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for $65.84 billion this year.

Even with today's 1% decline, shares of Caterpillar are about 30% higher year-to-date.

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