Caterpillar Shares Fall After Sales Miss, Weak Guidance

Caterpillar Inc. shares fell 2% in Tuesday premarket trading after the company reported a third-quarter sales miss and guided below estimates. Caterpillar reported net income of $283 million, or 48 cents per share, down from $559 million, or 94 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share were 85 cents, beating the 76 cents per share FactSet consensus. Sales for quarter were $9.16 billion, down from $10.96 billion last year and below the $9.92 billion FactSet consensus. "Economic weakness throughout much of the world persists and, as a result, most of our end markets remain challenged," said Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman in a statement. For full-year 2016, Caterpillar expects revenue of $39 billion and adjusted EPS of $3.25. The FactSet consensus is for $40.1 billion and EPS of $3.53. Preliminary sales guidance for 2017 "will not be significantly different than 2016," the company said. FactSet estimates sales of $39.3 billion in 2017. Caterpillar shares are up 26.5% for the year so far while the S&P 500 Index is up 5.3% for the same period.