Caterpillar's Sales Plunge as Mining Continues to Sink

Caterpillar’s Sales Plunge as Mining Continues to Sink

Caterpillar has a rough third quarter. Revenue shrank to $13.4B, down 18.4% as demand for mining equipment around the world slumped and net income dropped 44.3% to $946M. Mining has been slower than the company expected, and their revised outlook reflects that as it is down $1.00 per share to $5.50 from last quarter. Expectations at the beginning of the year were about $9 per share, so revisions keeps getting worse.

As the global recession ended, Caterpillar experienced strong demand for equipment with strong commodities prices for oil, gold, and copper. Unfortunately, all those have been down significantly in the past year, and so has Caterpillar. Caterpillar has been shutting factories and has already cut 13,000 jobs and temporarily laid off thousands more salaried employees. Given how poor the outlook is for the company, Caterpillar should considering burying a couple billion dollars around the world, and begging mining companies to go find it.