Caterpillar Shares Rise On Fourth-quarter Earnings Beat

Shares of Caterpillar Inc. were up 4% in pre-market trade Thursday after the company beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations, but missed on sales. Caterpillar reported a net loss of $87 million, or a loss of 15 cents per share, compared to a net income of $757 million, or $1.23 a share, in the year-earlier period. It reported adjusted earnings per share of 74 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 69 cents. Caterpillar reported sales of $11.03 billion, below $14.2 billion in the year-earlier period and below the FactSet consensus of $11.4 billion. "Cost management, restructuring actions and operational execution are helping the company while sales and revenues remain under pressure from weak commodity prices and slowing economic growth in developing countries," said Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar. For 2016, Caterpillar said it expects sales in the range of $40 to $44 billion and earnings of $3.50 per share. The FactSet consensus was for sales of $43.3 billion and earnings of $3.50.