Caterpillar (CAT) Stock Moves -0.19%: What You Should Know
Caterpillar (CAT) closed at $141.80 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.19% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.59% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.35%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.88%.
Coming into today, shares of the construction equipment company had lost 2.38% in the past month. In that same time, the Industrial Products sector lost 8.15%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.1%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CAT as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 23, 2018. In that report, analysts expect CAT to post earnings of $2.82 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 44.62%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.21 billion, up 15.79% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.64 per share and revenue of $54.59 billion. These totals would mark changes of +69.19% and +20.07%, respectively, from last year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CAT should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% lower. CAT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, CAT is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.2. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.68.
It is also worth noting that CAT currently has a PEG ratio of 0.78. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.79 at yesterday's closing price.
The Manufacturing - Construction and Mining industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 228, putting it in the bottom 11% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.