Caterpillar beats on earnings, but issues gloomier outlook
The company reported earnings of $0.83 per share for the fourth quarter, better than analysts' projections of $0.66 per share. Revenue came in slightly below expectations at $9.57 billion, analysts had been looking for $9.81 billion.
Once again, however, Caterpillar's outlook was worse than projected with the company now expecting full-year 2017 earnings per share of $2.90 against analysts' expectations of $3.08.
The company also moved down the mid-point for their expected 2017 sales range from $38 billion due to a stronger US dollar.
"Our expectation for sales and revenues in 2017 are now slightly lower due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar over the past two months, and as a result, our current outlook for sales and revenues in 2017 is a range of $36 billion to $39 billion with a midpoint of $37.5 billion," said a press release from Caterpillar.
CEO Jim Umpleby also paintd a dour picture of the global economic outlook, a view the company has had for the past few quarters.
"Our results for the fourth quarter, while slightly better than expected, continued to reflect pressure in many of our end markets from weak economic conditions around much of the world," said Umpleby.
Following the announcement Caterpillar's stock was down slightly in pre-market trading. Shares were trading at $97.50 as of 7:50 a.m. ET, a fall of 0.66% from Wednesday's close.