Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

[winston]

Heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar sinks to a new 52-week low

[behappyalways]

Caterpillar could cut 10,000 jobs by 2018
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34350057

[winston]

Construction-equipment giant Caterpillar struggles… down 25%-plus in seven months.

[winston]

not vested

Stellar Dow Jones Stocks #8: Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Year-to-Date Performance: 15%

After two years of miserable trading, it’s starting to look like the very worst is over for Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT).

Yes, the same old worries about China remain, but around the edges at least, CAT is benefitting from some encouraging signs.

Prices for crude oil and other commodities have either stabilized or reversed trend, and that’s the single biggest headwind for CAT stock.

At the same time, although key sales metrics continue to decline, the rate at which they’re doing so is decelerating.

CAT has been down so hard for so long that “less bad” is very good. Cost cuts are also going well, helping shares rise 15% so far this year.

Source: Investor Place

[winston]

Construction-equipment giant Caterpillar rises more than 15% since late May.

[winston]

Shares of heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar rise 43% in six months.

[winston]

Heavy-machinery behemoth Caterpillar jumps 50% in the past eight months.

[behappyalways]

CATERPILLAR WARNS: 'Economic weakness throughout much of the world persists'
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/caterpill ... 25110.html

[winston]

not vested

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) will be a big winner if serious infrastructure spending begins to take off again.

Maybe this won’t be in its major mining equipment sales in the United States or emerging markets, but Caterpillar already benefits from construction spending.

Numerous analyst upgrades have been seen around this strategy, and this is the best performing Dow Jones Industrial Average stock of 2016, despite not seeing a sales recovery take place yet.

Goldman Sachs recently gave Caterpillar a major upgrade to Buy from Neutral with a $112 price target on October 11.

The prior close was $88.22, but shares have pulled back to $83.50 after earnings.

The consensus analyst target price was $77.37 mid-month and has now risen to $80.50.

Goldman Sachs has the highest analyst target of all now, based on margin expansion and an earnings recovery much greater than investors have expected.

Source: 247 Wall St

[winston]

not vested

CAT’s Dividend Gets Buried

Caterpillar (CAT): Investors went crazy for infrastructure stocks after Donald Trump’s shock election win, sending shares of heavy-equipment supplier CAT up as high as 8% during Wednesday’s session.

That’s because Trump wants to spend big to upgrade America’s crumbling bridges and highways, and CAT should be among the first to benefit.

The stock’s 3.3% yield makes it even more tempting, but if the people who piled into CAT last week expect its payout to hold steady, they could be in for a nasty surprise.

Why? Because right now, the company’s payout ratio sits at 299% and climbing. No wonder CAT’s dividend growth has stalled!

More worrisome, the company usually announces a dividend hike in June but was quiet on that front this year. CAT has paid out a more manageable 71.6% of free cash flow as dividends over the past 12 months, but that figure is way up from 48.9% a year ago.

Unlike Frontier, CAT boasts a healthy balance sheet, so the payout seems safe for now. But the company desperately needs a global resource recovery to hold the dividend steady, let alone grow it … and a government spending spree won’t come quickly enough to help.

Source: Daily Trade Alert