Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) finished Wednesday with an addition of $2.83 to close at $273.03, an upside of 1.05 percent. An average of 2,124,560 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$1.48 in the past week, and it reached a new high 23 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 3,276,480 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 2,911,600.
CAT stock has increased by 4.19% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $256.82 on 07/27/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 08/02/23, shares of the company touched a low of $160.60 and a high of $293.88 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 12 times so far this year and achieved 13.97% or $33.47 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -7.09% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
CAT stock investors should be aware that Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 15 days ago on Aug 09. In this transaction, the insider spent $5,238,129. Group President, Creed Joseph E, disposed of 7,286 shares at a price of $285.25 on Aug 03. The insider now owns more than $2,078,361 worth of shares. Prior to that, Group President De Lange Bob went on to Sale 20,000 shares at $275.00 each on Aug 01. An amount of $5,500,000 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 16.99. The stock’s beta is 1.11. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 2.16, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 7.68, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 19.28.
The company has a payout ratio of 29.70%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $1.30 a share, representing a up of 8.33% from $1.20 last year. Its latest increase dividend $0.10 reported on Wednesday June 14 2023.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Caterpillar Inc. for the three months ended June 29 was 0.80, and the current ratio was 1.30, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 1.26 and a total debt to equity ratio of 2.07 for the quarter ending June 29. Caterpillar Inc.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 29 is 19.09%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 16.20%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $18.08 billion compared to revenue of $59.43 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Caterpillar Inc.’s return on assets was 10.10%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Caterpillar Inc. had $8.54 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $2.92 billion in the quarter, while revenues of $1.94 billion were grew 42.74%. The analyst consensus anticipated Caterpillar Inc.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $4.58 per share, but it turned out to be $5.55, a 21.20% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $4.44 billion. At the end of the quarter ending June 29, Caterpillar Inc.’s stock balance sheet showed total liabilities of 67.17 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $510.14 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 23 August was 47.12%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 15.15%.
As of today, CAT’s price is $272.99 -0.54% or -$1.48 from its 5-day moving average. CAT is currently trading +5.69% higher than its 20-day SMA and +21.60% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is +14.77% above the SMA50 and +24.52% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 15.16% and 17.16%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 5.95. With the 14-day stochastic at 22.43% and the average true range at 6.05, the RSI (14) stands at 53.02%. The stock has reached -4.29 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -6.29.
Analyst Ratings
Citigroup reiterated its a Neutral rating on Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), but raised their price target to $240, indicating a potential price decrease of -13.76% for the stock. The consensus rating for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 2 brokerage firms advise that investors sell CAT, while 13 suggest investors hold. There are 1 analyst who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 0 analysts, while 11 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is CAT’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $175.00 and $361.00, with a median target of $294.50. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) stock is $288.00.
