Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE:CAT) - Jefferies Group upped their Q2 2017 EPS estimates for shares of Caterpillar in a research note issued on Monday. Jefferies Group analyst S. Volkmann now expects that the industrial products company will earn $1.10 per share for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $0.95. Jefferies Group also issued estimates for Caterpillar’s Q3 2017 earnings at $0.87 EPS, FY2017 earnings at $4.10 EPS, FY2018 earnings at $4.90 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $5.60 EPS.
Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Zacks Investment Research raised Caterpillar from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $107.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Deutsche Bank AG lowered their price objective on Caterpillar from $108.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. Raymond James Financial, Inc. raised Caterpillar to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. Vetr raised Caterpillar from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $107.75 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America Corporation raised Caterpillar from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Caterpillar has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.72.
Caterpillar (NYSE CAT) opened at 107.85 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $106.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.00. Caterpillar has a 12-month low of $78.34 and a 12-month high of $110.00. The company’s market cap is $63.53 billion. Caterpillar also was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 37,848 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 377% compared to the average volume of 7,942 call options.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.66. Caterpillar had a positive return on equity of 16.46% and a negative net margin of 0.38%. The company had revenue of $9.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, August 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 20th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 18th. This is a positive change from Caterpillar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Caterpillar’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1,155.51%.
Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the fourth quarter worth $414,361,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Caterpillar by 11.4% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,561,361 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,628,992,000 after buying an additional 1,798,312 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the first quarter worth $143,490,000. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Caterpillar by 15.1% in the first quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,398,677 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $964,579,000 after buying an additional 1,365,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Caterpillar by 3.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,847,552 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,603,500,000 after buying an additional 1,342,984 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.70% of the company’s stock.
Caterpillar Company Profile
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