Industrials

Goldman Sachs analyst Jerry Revich maintains Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) with a Buy and lowers the price target from $315 to $274.

Caterpillar’s sales to users were up 13% in 3Q, but that was below the company’s expectations, CEO Jim Umpleby says on a call with analysts. Specifically, sales to users in its energy and transportation business were up by more than a third but missed expectations due to supply chain challenges and the timing of certain gas turbine and international locomotive deliveries, Umpleby says. The lower-than-anticipated sales to users were nearly offset by an unexpected increase in dealer inventory, CFO Andrew Bonfield says on the call.

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: Our 12-month target remains $296, an implied 14.3x multiple of our revised 2024 EPS estimate. The applied multiple is a slight discount to CAT’s five-year forward average of 15x and reflects some degree of caution around risk of an overseas slowdown. We raise our 2023 EPS estimate by $1.39 to $20.06 and 2024’s by $2.55 to $20.75. CAT reports Q3 results on October 31, but shares are down 15% since the beginning of August and now offer a better risk-reward balance, in our view. We like prospects for non-residential construction in the U.S., helped by renewed Federal spending on infrastructure that is starting to be put to work, although higher interest rates could crimp spending levels overseas. Shares yield 2.1% and we estimate a 2024 dividend payout