Caterpillar Raises Full-Year Forecast
October 20, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
Caterpillar, the maker of bulldozers and excavators, has posted surprisingly high third-quarter earnings that managed to beat analyst expectations and raised its full-year forecast to a level that beats the highest analyst prediction. The company has struggled immensely under the weight of the economic downturn and it believes that the third quarter marks the bottom of its own downturn.
Profit fell from $868 million, or $1.39 per share, last year to $404 million, or 64 cents per share, this year, according to a statement released today by the company. Caterpillar has undergone vigorous cost-cutting measures to battle decreasing revenues, slashing inventories and production as well as cutting 18,700 full-time jobs and about the same number of temporary jobs.
Sales fell 44 percent to $7.3 billion from $12.98 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Despite comparatively weak sales and profits, though, Caterpillar narrowed its full-year forecast prediction from $1.15 to $225 per share to $1.85 to $2.05 per share, with the average analyst estime sitting at $1.48 per share and the highest estimate coming in at $1.75 per share.
Image: Flickr
