Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) saw an upside of 1.12% to $272.54 after adding $3.02 on Wednesday. The 5-day average trading volume is 1,559,709 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $276.21 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 2,003,292 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 2,517,919.
CAT’s 1-month performance is -0.82% or $0.52 on its low of $269.15 reached on 09/26/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $160.60 and high of $293.88, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 08/02/23. YTD, CAT has achieved 13.77% or $33.52 and has reached a new high 12 times. However, the current price is down -7.26% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
CAT stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Aug 30.Fassino Anthony D. (Group President) most recently sold 2,740 shares at $282.57 per share on Aug 30. This transaction cost the insider $774,242. Group President, Fassino Anthony D., sold 2,923 shares at a price of $279.00 on Aug 29. Then, on Aug 09, Chief Human Resources Officer Johnson Cheryl H sold 18,294 shares at a price of $286.33 per share. This transaction amounted to $5,238,129.
Valuation Metrics
CAT stock has a beta of 1.11. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 2.15 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 7.62, with the price to cash flow ratio at 19.15.
Caterpillar Inc.’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 0.83, with the current ratio over the same period at 1.33. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 1.26, while the total debt to equity was 2.07. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 32.77%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 19.09% while for the period ending June 29, Caterpillar Inc.’s operating margin was 19.02%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $18.08 billion against revenue of $59.43 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went up compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 42.74% to $2.92 billion, while revenue of $1.94 billion was 33.5% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected CAT to announce $4.58 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $5.55, representing a 21.20% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $4.44 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $510.14 million.
Let’s look briefly at Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 26 September was 42.99% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 17.88%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $272.39, reflecting a -1.98% or -$5.53 change from its current price. CAT is currently trading -2.48% above its 20-day SMA, +29.80% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by +3.51% and SMA200 by+18.26%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 16.68% and 13.53% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 5.55. The RSI (14) points at 45.96%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 22.52% with the period’s ATR at 5.66. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -3.30 and -5.21 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Citigroup reiterated its a Neutral rating for the company but lifted their price target by $240 to $270. Analysts offering their rating for CAT stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 2 brokerage advisors rate CAT as a “sell,”, while 11 advise that investors “Hold.” 2 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 0 rates the stock as overweight while 10 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is CAT’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $175.00 and a high of $364.00, with their median price target at $294.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) stock is $289.27.
