por admin » Mar Abr 24, 2018 7:10 am
Caterpillar earnings: $2.82 a share, vs $2.13 EPS expected
Kevin Breuninger | @KevinWilliamB
Published 58 Mins Ago Updated Moments Ago
CNBC.com
Caterpillar reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday before market open.
The machinery manufacturing company reported earnings of $2.82 per share on revenue of $12.9 billion.
In the previous quarter, the company handily beat the Street's expectations and raised its full-year sales projections.
Caterpillar
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Caterpillar stock surged more than 4 percent in premarket trading Tuesday morning after the company's first-quarter earnings came in well above economists' expectations.
Here's how the company did compared with what Wall Street expected:
Earnings: $2.82 per share vs. $2.13 per share forecast by Thomson Reuters
Revenue: $12.9 billion vs. $12.1 billion forecast by Thomson Reuters
The Illinois-based machinery manufacturer raised its 2018 profit outlook by $2 compared to the previous quarter, to a range of $10.25 to $11.25 per share. The rosier guidance exceeds Reuters economists' expected range of between $8.39 and $10.60 a share. The company cited better-than-expected sales volume as the main driver of its improved full-year guidance.
Increased volume also drove the company's total sales up 38 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $5.7 billion. Caterpillar also repurchased $500 million of common stock in the first quarter of 2018.
"The combination of strength in many of our end markets and our team's continued focus on operational excellence — including strong cost control — helped us deliver improved margins and a record first-quarter profit," Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby said in a statement.
The company added 10,900 jobs year-over-year, bringing its worldwide total to 118,800.
While Caterpillar's stock has slipped about 2 percent in 2018 so far, the company is well-positioned to benefit from a construction sector boom in China, Citigroup said in a note on Monday, upgrading the manufacturers' shares to buy from neutral.
The company acknowledged the fertile ground for construction in China in its earnings release, saying the "biggest drivers" in 2018 are "continued strength for construction activity in North America and infrastructure development in China."