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Caterpillar (CAT) Surpasses Market Returns: Some Facts Worth Knowing

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In the latest market close, Caterpillar (CAT - Free Report) reached $290.68, with a +0.64% movement compared to the previous day. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.08%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.36%.

Shares of the construction equipment company have depreciated by 2.3% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Industrial Products sector's loss of 0.83% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.4%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Caterpillar in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on February 5, 2024. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $4.76, marking a 23.32% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $17.15 billion, indicating a 3.36% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Caterpillar. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.06% lower. Caterpillar is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at valuation, Caterpillar is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.07. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.06.

We can additionally observe that CAT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.09. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. Manufacturing - Construction and Mining stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.93 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 81, putting it in the top 33% 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.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.


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