Caterpillar stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
February 27th, 2020
1
Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives for construction, resource, and energy and transportation industries.
Should I buy Caterpillar stock?
You can't be a successful trader if you don't follow a methodolgy or system that assist you in choosing companies and the correct market timing. Having a trading strategy helps to make decisions easier, quicker and with less hesitations. There are thousands of trading strategies for you to choose, but at Stocks2.com we prefer those that are simple but successful.Currently, Caterpillar stock doesn't match any of these trading strategies, so our recommendation is not to buy.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Caterpillar stock a buy?
Financial institutions and banks publish stock ratings everyday.
Unfortunately, we couldn't detect any rating for CAT stock for the last 30 days.Caterpillar stock analysis
Daily outlook
Caterpillar shares plunged -3.88% to $123.27 today.
Shares of Caterpillar closed today at $123.27 and plunged a spooky -3.88%. Since SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up on December, CAT price slid a -15.43%. From a daily outlook perspective, CAT is drawing an uptrend of rising tops and rising bottoms. Since its last top on February 13th at $140.50, price slid and found support around $135.08. Breaking down under $135.08 would cancel the current uptrend and it might slide further to test lower supports. Note that $140.50 might act as a resistance line. If Caterpillar breakouts over $140.50 with average or higher volume, this would be a signal that the uptrend resumes.
Weekly outlook
Shares of Caterpillar collapsed a hair-raising -10.16% this week.
After losing the previous support, price will slide down to find new supports. This week, Caterpillar stock lost the significant level of the 40-weeks moving average. Stocks below the 40w moving average line are usually not recommended for average traders. Since SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up early December, CAT price slid a -13.02%.
Caterpillar stock price history
Caterpillar stock historical price chart
CAT stock reached 52-week highs on January at $149.50, and all-time highs 2018-01-25 with a price of 164.26.
Caterpillar stock price target
Nobody can reliably foresee how stock prices may evolve in the future. However, banks and other financial institutions analysts, with the help of lots of data and algorithms do their best to predict the stock prices movement. You should not follow the analysts' CAT stock price predictions in the hope that they will be met as they may be wrong and not met. For the last 30 days we have not detected any price forecast for Caterpillar stock by any trusted analyst.Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since last April, when Caterpillar published its last earnings report, it . As soon as we get its actual EPS from the earnings report, we will extend this report.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 1.54 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-10-24 | 1.27 | 1.95 | 53.5% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-01-25 | 1.79 | 2.16 | 20.7% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-04-24 | 2.11 | 2.82 | 33.6% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-07-30 | 2.66 | 2.97 | 11.7% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-23 | 2.83 | 2.86 | 1.1% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-01-28 | 2.98 | 2.55 | -14.4% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-24 | 2.85 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
Compared to 2017, last anual turnover report draw a dazzling gain of 20.37% to $54,722.00 million dollars. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, in the same way, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) jumped a 9.57% to 11.23%. Caterpillar fiscal year ends in December, and to compare its evolution since then, we estimate annual sales and income figures by adding results from the last 4 quarters. This is called TTM (or Twelve Trailing Months). So, Caterpillar TTM sales up to March 2019 were $55,329.00 and earnings $6,363.00 million dollars. When comparing this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can esteem Caterpillar business evolution since December 2018: Annual sales up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, inched a slightly good 1.11%. In line, profit margin (net income/revenues) remained constant at 11.23%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $55,660 M | - | $3,790 M6.8% | - |
| 2014 | $55,184 M | -0.86% | $3,695 M6.7% | -2.51% |
| 2015 | $47,011 M | -14.81% | $2,102 M4.5% | -43.11% |
| 2016 | $38,537 M | -18.03% | $-67.00 M-0.2% | -103.19% |
| 2017 | $45,462 M | 17.97% | $754 M1.7% | -1,225.37% |
| 2018 | $54,722 M | 20.37% | $6,147 M11.2% | 715.25% |
| TTM | $55,329 M | 1.11% | $6,363 M11.5% | 3.51% |
Quarterly financial results
Caterpillar reported $13,466.00 million in revenues for 2019-Q1, a -6.11% decline compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income marked $1,881.00 million with a profit margin of 13.97%. Profit margin soared a 6.66% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 7.31%. When comparing sales to same quarter last year, Caterpillar sales marked a nice increase and appreciated a 4.72%.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $11,330 M | - | $802 M7.1% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $11,410 M | 0.71% | $1,060 M9.3% | 32.17% |
| 2017-Q4 | $12,896 M | 13.02% | $-1,299 M-10.1% | -222.55% |
| 2018-Q1 | $12,859 M | -0.29% | $1,665 M12.9% | -228.18% |
| 2018-Q2 | $14,011 M | 8.96% | $1,707 M12.2% | 2.52% |
| 2018-Q3 | $13,510 M | -3.58% | $1,727 M12.8% | 1.17% |
| 2018-Q4 | $14,342 M | 6.16% | $1,048 M7.3% | -39.32% |
| 2019-Q1 | $13,466 M | -6.11% | $1,881 M14.0% | 79.48% |
Caterpillar ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a company, it's always worth to overview its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Caterpillar, 0.18% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
In case of Caterpillar stock, 67.61% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for CAT stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
For a better understanding, the following table shows ownership data compared to other related stocks:
| CAT | |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $68.1 B |
| Total shares | 552.7 M |
| Float shares | 548.9 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 67.6% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.2% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% |
Caterpillar summary
| Thursday, February 27th, 2020 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $125.60 |
| Close | $123.27 |
| Day range | $123.24 - $128.53 |
| Previous close | $128.25 |
| Session gain | -3.88% |
| Average true range | $3.27 |
| 50d mov avg | $140.64 |
| 100d mov avg | $139.24 |
| 200d mov avg | $131.85 |
| Daily pattern | lb03a |
| Weekly pattern | lt02c |
Caterpillar performance
To measure stock performance is always good to compare with competitors or related stocks. We chose as the bechmarking frame for Caterpillar stock.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| CATCaterpillar | -14.23% | 5.13% | -7.73% |
Caterpillar competitors
Unfortunately, we could not find any public company that could be defined as Caterpillar competitor. This doesn't mean Caterpillar does not have any competitor in the market, it's just we could not detected it.Latest Caterpillar stock news
- InvestorPlaceCaterpillar Stock Is Primed for a Post-Earnings ShortJuly 25, 2019
- InvestorPlaceDow Jones Today: The Dow Has a Caterpillar ProblemJuly 24, 2019
- InvestorPlaceCaterpillar Earnings: CAT Stock Down on Q2 MissJuly 24, 2019
- InvestorPlaceCaterpillar Stock Remains Unconvincing Prior to Q2 EarningsJuly 22, 2019
- Investors.comStocks Open Mixed; Caterpillar Drags On Dow Jones: ASML Breaks OutJuly 17, 2019