Earnings: Caterpillar beats, says it sees higher costs ahead

Reuters / Mike Blake

Caterpillar on Tuesday reported a better than expected quarterly profit, but mentioned rising material costs were on the horizon. Shares slumped about 7% ahead of the opening bell. 

The heavy-equipment maker earned an adjusted $2.86 a share, edging out the $2.85 that Wall Street analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. Revenue soared 18.4% versus a year ago to $13.51 billion, topping the $13.29 billion that was antcipated. 

Caterpillar reaffirmed its adjusted-profit-per-share outlook of between $11 and $12.

“This was the best third-quarter profit per share in our company’s history,” Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby said in the earnings release.

“Our global team continues to do excellent work focusing on our customers’ success and executing our strategy for profitable growth.”

And while the results were stronger than expected, the company mentioned that rising material costs are coming. 

“In the fourth quarter, price realization, operational excellence and cost discipline are expected to more than offset higher material and freight costs, including tariffs,” Caterpillar said in the release.

Shares were down more than 18% this year through Monday.

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