Weak Monthly Sales Trends Continue at Caterpillar
Investors who were hoping for an uptick in Caterpillar sales in the world's growth markets are going to have to wait.
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Investors who were hoping for an uptick in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) sales in the world’s growth markets are going to have to wait. The heavy machinery making giant released a rolling three-month report for August, and the weakness seen in the financial markets and in the economic reports was just too much escape from.
All in all, there was an 11% drop globally in the period ending in August. This effectively matches the report for the three-month rolling period ending in July. Europe, Africa and the Middle East saw cumulatively flat sales. North America was down 5%, and Asia and Latin America were both weak, with Asia/Pacific sales down 29% and Latin America down 33%.
When you break out the trends in the Energy & Transportation retail sales by segment, the trends were even worse than in the three-month period ending in July — a trend that was getting worse from June already. All in all, this was down 21%. Industrial sales held steady at -16% lower. The segments getting worse were as follows: Power Generation at -14%, Transportation at -38% and Oil & Gas at -20%.
Caterpillar shares were still up 0.9% at $72.55 shortly after the opening bell, but they backed off their intra-morning highs of $72.83 after this filing was released.
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24/7 Wall St. has included a copy of the two tables provided by Caterpillar in its 8-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
