Caterpillar Q2 revenues up 3 percent, still miss market expectation

Source: Xinhua | 2019-07-25

U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar reported a 3 percent rise in sales and revenues during the second quarter of 2019, due to strong performance from its construction segment.
Caterpillar announced on Wednesday sales and revenues of 14.4 billion U.S. dollars in the Q2, up from 14 billion dollars in the same period of 2018, while analysts said that they had expected better results.
The leading machinery maker said it continues to expect modest sales growth in 2019, and maintains its full-year profit per share outlook at 12.06 dollars to 13.06 dollars, but "at the lower end of this outlook range."
Despite its overall moderate growth in Q2, the company's sales and revenues in energy and transportation sector shrank 4 percent year on year.
As for regional breakdown, sales of Caterpillar increased in North America and Latin America, but they were partially offset by decreases in Asia/Pacific and EAME (Europe, Asia and Middle East ).
Construction industry's total sales were at a record 6.467 billion dollars in Q2 of 2019, a 5 percent increase from the same period of 2018. Yet in Asia/Pacific, the segment declined amid lower demand in China driven by "continued competitive pricing pressures and timing of the selling season as well as unfavorable currency impacts," said Caterpillar.
Caterpillar's Q2 results missed market expectations, said some analysts, who had predicted a 4 percent rise in sales and revenues, and higher increase in earnings per share.
As a result, Caterpillar's shares dropped almost 6 percent at the beginning of trading on Wednesday in New York, but later recovered some losses.