Caterpillar misses on earnings, cuts outlook, stock falls

Industrial giant Caterpillar just reported earnings, and it's a miss.

The company earned $0.75 per share in the third quarter, excluding restructuring costs, below expectations for earnings of $0.78 according to estimates from Yahoo Finance.

Revenue in the quarter totaled $11 billion, below expectations for $11.25 billion.

Full-year earnings guidance was reduced to adjusted profit of $4.60 per share from $4.70, which the company forecast in July. Caterpillar also said on Thursday that it now expects 2016 revenue to fall about 5%, with declines across each of its major segments including construction, energy & transportation, and resources industries.

In pre-market trading on Thursday, shares of the company were down about 3%.

In September, Caterpillar shares fell about 7% after announcing a massive restructuring that would result in at least 10,000 layoffs, citing what it called, "a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors - namely in mining and energy."

On Thursday, Caterpillar said its reduced outlook, "reflects weak economic growth in the United States and Europe with U.S. construction activity impacted by low infrastructure investment and continued headwinds from oil and gas. It also reflects a slowing China, Brazil in recession and continuing weakness in commodity prices."

Back in September, we highlighted the following chart from Bespoke Investment Group, which showed the continued sequential declines in sales for Caterpillar, which the company doesn't seem to expect to reverse next year.