Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, after market close on Wednesday released its first-quarter financial results, posting a 29% increase in profit. The Peoria, Illinois-based company also raised its outlook for the year, sending shares marginally higher in pre-market trading today.
For the first quarter of 2012, Caterpillar reported net income of $1.59 billion, or $2.37 per share, compared with $1.23 billion, or $1.84 per share reported for the same period in the previous year. Caterpillar reported first-quarter revenue of $15.98 billion, representing an increase of 23% over the same period in the previous year.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting Caterpillar to report first-quarter earnings of $2.13 per share and revenue of $16.18 billion.
Caterpillar also raised its earnings outlook for 2012. The company now expects to generate earnings per share of $9.50 for the full year, compared with previous forecast of $9.25 per share. However, the company did not raise its revenue forecast for the full year and hence the gains in CAT shares have been limited as investors were expecting a lot more from the company.
Jeff Windau, analyst at Edward Jones, said that Caterpillar’s strong quarterly results and improved outlook just weren’t as high as many projected. Windau said that expectations are pretty high of Caterpillar right now.
Commenting on the first-quarter results, Doug Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, said that these outstanding results demonstrate CAT’s continued focus on execution and controlling costs as the company increases production and expands capacity to meet increasing demand from customers. Oberhelman further said that CAT is seeing strong global demand for most mining products and significant growth in replacement demand for products in the U.S., which more than offset slowing in China and Brazil. He added that during the quarter, he visited CAT facilities, customers, suppliers, and dealers around the world and saw firsthand the progress the company is making on safety, product quality, improved delivery times, factory efficiencies and customer service.
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