Caterpillar sales growth slows in Q3

Shares in trade bellwether Caterpillar headed south in pre-market trading on Tuesday after news of the construction equipment manufacturer's decelerating sales growth more than offset its third-quarter earnings beat.

Caterpillar earnings per share rose 40% to $5.52 in the three months ended 30 September, while revenues grew 12% to $16.81bn. The group attributed $1.3bn of that to price increases and about $350.0m to higher sales volumes. Analysts had expected Caterpillar to deliver EPS of $4.80 and revenues of $16.57bn.

Construction industry sales were up 12% year-on-year at $3.7bn but down 2.2% on the previous quarter, driven by lower sales in Latin America and Asia.

Resource industries sales grew 9% year-on-year, and sales to energy and transportation industries grew 11% year-on-year. However, both were softer quarter-on-quarter, down 6% and 5%, respectively.

Caterpillar said its order backlog had nosedived $2.6bn quarter-on-quarter, a sharp reversal from the prior period's $300.0m uptick, partly due to the fact that supply chains have largely normalised and the need for extra equipment has eased.

As of 1320 GMT, Caterpillar shares were down 5.83% in pre-market trading at $228.05.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com