What to Expect When Caterpillar Reports Tuesday Morning

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT | CAT Price Prediction) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results before the opening bell on Tuesday. Overall, analysts are looking for $1.69 in earnings per share (EPS) and $10.92 billion in revenue for the first quarter. The same period of last year reportedly had $2.94 in EPS and $13.47 billion in revenue.

In late March, Caterpillar said that it pulled its 2020 outlook and suspended some operations. The company also announced cost-cutting measures, including cutting executive pay.

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When Caterpillar made the update about guidance, the company detailed in the release:

Caterpillar’s financial results for the first quarter and remainder of 2020 will be impacted by the above factors and the continued global economic uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Caterpillar is withdrawing its financial outlook for 2020 provided in the press release filed as Exhibit 99.1 to its Form 8-K filed on January 31, 2020. Further updates will be provided in Caterpillar’s first-quarter earnings announcement and conference call on April 28, 2020.

Caterpillar’s financial position remains strong. On a consolidated basis, Caterpillar ended 2019 with $8.3 billion of cash and available global credit facilities of $10.5 billion.

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Excluding Monday’s move, Caterpillar stock had underperformed the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 with a pullback of about 23% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was down 16%.

Here’s what a few analysts had to say about Caterpillar ahead of the report:

• Morgan Stanley has an Underweight rating and a $93 price target.
• Barclays has a Hold rating with a $140 target price.
• Merrill Lynch rates it as Underperform and a $115 price target.
• Credit Suisse has an Outperform rating with a $148 price target.
• Stephens has an Underweight rating with an $80 price target.
• Citigroup’s Buy rating comes with a $125 price target.

Caterpillar stock traded down about 1% to $112.98, in a 52-week range of $87.50 to $150.55. The consensus price target is $123.58.

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