February Sales Will Not Boost Caterpillar Appeal to Investors

Thursday’s report showed a year-over-year decrease in resource industries segment sales in every geographic region except Asia/Pacific, which posted a gain of 37%. Sales in the Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) region were off 42%, and North American sales were down 7%.

Sales in the construction industries segment rose 5% in EAME but were down 40% in Latin America, 29% in Asia/Pacific and 1% in North America.

In the energy and transportation segment, sales of transportation products were up 39%, power generation sales rose 19%, oil and gas equipment sales rose 18% and industrial sales were down 16%.

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Investors are less than excited by Caterpillar’s performance. The stock is the third-worst performer among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and it has lost more than 10% since the year began. Over the past 12 months, Caterpillar stock is the worst performing among the Dow 30, down more than 13%.

This latest data will not improve the stock’s performance either. Shares traded down about 1.6% at $80.02 in the first half hour Thursday morning. The stock’s 52-week range is $78.19 to $111.46, and the analysts’ consensus price target is $84.29.