Caterpillar (CAT) Stock Moves -0.42%: What You Should Know
Caterpillar (CAT) closed at $214.91 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.42% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.31%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.39%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.7%.
Coming into today, shares of the construction equipment company had gained 12.11% in the past month. In that same time, the Industrial Products sector gained 5.68%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.32%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CAT as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, CAT is projected to report earnings of $1.87 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.88%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $10.83 billion, up 1.83% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.99 per share and revenue of $46.02 billion, which would represent changes of +21.8% and +10.22%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for CAT. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.04% higher within the past month. CAT is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Digging into valuation, CAT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.01. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 26.56.
Investors should also note that CAT has a PEG ratio of 2.25 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. CAT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.52 as of yesterday's close.
The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 54, which puts it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
To follow CAT in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
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