Caterpillar increases its profit in the fourth quarter, but remains below expectations.
The machine manufacturer Caterpillar announced that it had closed the fourth quarter of 2022 with Net profit of 1.68 billion euros, up 4%. than the 1,611 million reached during the same period of the previous year. However, consensus had expected earnings per share to be slightly higher than the company’s reported $3.86 per share.
Thereby, the Californian firm lost 4.30% on Wall Street.. Year-to-date, Caterpillar shares are up 9%, while rising 19% in the last quarter.
“Our global team had one of the best years in our nearly 100-year history, including record full-year adjusted earnings per share,” said Caterpillar President and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Umpleby. According to the leader, “despite supply chain challenges, the team achieved double-digit gross income growth and generated strong free cash flow.“. “We remain committed to serving our customers, executing our strategy and investing for long-term profitable growth,” he added.
The website returned from the Californian firm far exceeded consensus expectations. Thus, Caterpillar sales rebounded to $16.597 billion, up 20%. than the $13.798 billion of the previous year. Of the turnover, 7.938 billion dollars came from North America, up 36%; $1.989 billion from Latin America, up 39%; revenue from Africa, Europe and the Middle East rebounded 5% to $3.526 billion; and in Asia Pacific, sales were flat at $3.114 billion.
For the full year 2022, sales increased 17% to $59.4 billion from $51 million in 2021.
Furthermore, the The company’s operating cash flow was $7.8 billion.. Throughout 2022, the company repurchased $4.2 billion of common stock. from Caterpillar and paid dividends worth $2.4 billion.. Liquidity remained “strong”, with a corporate cash balance of $7 billion at the end of 2022.
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