Caterpillar Sales Continue to Rise, Just More Slowly (CAT)

Caterpillar Corp. (NYSE: CAT) has been one of the Dow Jones 30’s best performers over the past couple of years, but the past six months have not been especially kind to the heavy equipment maker. Sales have continued to grow, but at a slower rate as the global economy softens more and Latin American sales continue to slide.

It the company’s latest monthly machinery sales report, Latin American are up just 8% on a rolling three-month average, compared with a gain of 16% reported in November and a gain of 33% in October. In February of this year the sales gain was reported to be 76%.

Sales in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (Caterpillar’s EAME region) are also tailing off but not as steeply. In Asia, sales rose 33% on a three-month rolling average in October, but slipped a bit to a 31% gain in November.

In North America, sales reached a peak increase of 65% in April, falling off to 41% in November. Still North America has led the company’s sales gains for both October and November.

In engine sales, the company continues to post gains, but at nowhere near the levels of earlier this year. For example, in March the three-month rolling average of electric engines gained 57%, while in November the gain was just 16%.

The complete report is available at Caterpillar’s web site.