MW Caterpillar misses on revenue again, warns of a decline in 2025

By Tomi Kilgore

Profit resumes pattern of beats, but stock heads for biggest drop in 9 months

Shares of Caterpillar Inc. were headed for their worst day in nine months in early trading Thursday, after the construction- and mining-equipment company missed quarterly revenue again, citing lower sales volumes in all three of its major business segments.

The company also said it expects 2025 revenue to be "slightly lower" than 2024, while Wall Street was expecting a slight increase.

The stock $(CAT)$ dropped 5.2% in premarket trading, which puts it on track for the biggest decline since the 7% selloff on April 25, 2024. The implied price decline would shave about 125 points off the price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, of which it is a component.

Revenue for the fourth quarter fell 5% from a year ago to $16.22 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $16.61 billion, to mark the fifth-straight quarterly miss.

Among the company's business segments, construction-industries revenue declined 7.9%, $6.0 billion from $6.5 billion, as lower prices reduced results by $300 million and $227 million in reduced volumes.

Resource Industries revenue was down 8.6% to $2.96 billion, as changes in dealer inventories led to lower sales volume.

Revenue from its energy and transportation division dipped 0.3% to $7.65 billion from $7.67 billion, as a $301 million drop in sales volume was partially offset by $221 million from increased prices.

For 2025, the slight decline in revenue the company expects contrasts with the current FactSet consensus of $66.01 billion, which is 1.9% above 2024 revenue of $64.81 billion.

Net income for the fourth quarter rose to $2.79 billion, or $5.78 a share, from $2.68 billion, or $5.28 a share, in the same period a year ago.

Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share declined to $5.14 from $5.23, but beat the FactSet consensus of $5.02. That marked the seventh quarterly EPS beat in the past eight quarters.

The stock has gained 3.7% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the Dow has advanced 6.1%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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January 30, 2025 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)

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