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World's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, plus diesel/natural-gas engines and power generation systems.
World's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, plus diesel/natural-gas engines and power generation systems.
Sells machines and engines mainly through independent dealers, who handle sales, rental and servicing, and earns steady parts and service revenue from machines already in use. Its financing arm lends to buyers. Engines for power generation, including backup power for data centres, have become a growing part.
Moat: wide (brand, distribution, scale). A global dealer/service network and huge installed base create switching costs few rivals can match.
Headquarters: Irving, Texas, USA · Founded: 1925 · Employees: 118,000
Size Caterpillar (CAT) is a United States Industrials company (Trucks/Construction/Farm Machinery) with a market value of $257B, the 41st largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $558.63 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 37.8%, against -7.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 4th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 20.3% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.1%); the operating margin is 19.1% (peer median 13.1%).
Valuation It trades at 18.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 15.1× (9th most expensive of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 18% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +10%, so the hurdle is +8 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 8.0 points above its cost of capital (11.9% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $49.4B at 30 Sep 2026, up 120% on a year earlier — 0.6 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Caterpillar has 55 bonds outstanding ($36.6B), rated A by the agencies and trading like AA- at a weighted spread of 48 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 1.6% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $77.8B | $67.6B | $64.8B | $67.1B | $59.4B |
| Revenue growth | — | +4% | -3% | +13% | — |
| Gross profit | $25.9B | $21.8B | $23.5B | $23.5B | $17.0B |
| EBITDA | $17.3B | $13.9B | $15.7B | $16.0B | $11.3B |
| Net income | $11.8B | $8.88B | $10.8B | $10.3B | $6.71B |
| Free cash flow | $9.62B | $7.45B | $8.82B | $9.79B | $5.17B |
| Capital expenditure | $4.57B | $4.29B | $3.21B | $3.09B | $2.60B |
| Total debt | $45.2B | $44.1B | $39.0B | $38.5B | $37.6B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caterpillar CAT | $257B | -38% | +20% | 19% | 18.8× | 18.0% |
| Komatsu 6301.T | $32.2B | -12% | +9% | 13% | 13.1× | 9.5% |
| Deere & DE | $181B | +17% | +8% | 20% | 32.0× | 16.2% |
| Cummins CMI | $62.0B | -34% | +3% | 11% | 13.8× | 11.6% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | CAT | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -29.8% | -5.3% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -37.8% | -7.1% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -48.0% | -20.2% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +20.3% | +9.1% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 19.1% | 13.1% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 18.8× | 15.1× | 9th most expensive of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 18.0% | 7.4% | 2nd most demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +10.1% | +8.5% | 8th highest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +7.8 pp | -1.3 pp | 5th most demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +8.0 pp | +3.2 pp | 6th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 17.0× | 13.0× | 4th most expensive of 14 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.2× | 1.4× | 6th most indebted of 14 |
| Bond spread | 48 bp | 76 bp | 3rd tightest of 10 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caterpillar CAT | United States | $257B | -38% | +20% | 19% | 18.8× | 18.0% | +10.1% |
| Deere & DE | United States | $181B | +17% | +8% | 20% | 32.0× | 16.2% | +5.1% |
| Volvo VOLV-A.ST | Sweden | $65.2B | -1% | -3% | 12% | 14.7× | 5.4% | +7.2% |
| Paccar PCAR | United States | $53.7B | -11% | -1% | 11% | 15.4× | 11.2% | +8.7% |
| Wabtec WAB | United States | $47.6B | +7% | +13% | 18% | 23.8× | 17.0% | +8.1% |
| Sandvik SAND.ST | Sweden | $45.8B | -1% | +14% | 20% | 21.0× | 13.3% | +6.9% |
| China CSSC 600150.SS | China | $39.7B | -16% | +80% | 8% | 13.3× | -7.8% | +22.4% |
| Komatsu 6301.T | Japan | $32.2B | -12% | +9% | 13% | 13.1× | 9.5% | +13.6% |
| Epiroc EPI-A.ST | Sweden | $28.6B | -10% | +1% | 19% | 29.3× | 16.5% | +11.4% |
| CRRC 601766.SS | China | $27.0B | +10% | +2% | 6% | 13.0× | -6.4% | +3.8% |
| Sany Heavy Industry 600031.SS | China | $24.6B | -4% | +18% | 11% | 17.4× | -2.6% | -2.2% |
| Doosan Enerbility 034020.KS | South Korea | $21.1B | -65% | +9% | 5% | 82.3× | 22.7% | +13.2% |
| Hd Hyundai Heavy Industries 329180.KS | South Korea | $20.3B | -62% | +41% | 15% | 9.5× | -7.0% | +16.2% |
| Kubota 6326.T | Japan | $18.2B | 0% | +13% | 11% | 10.0× | 7.5% | +10.3% |
| Wartsila Oyj Abp WRT1V.HE | Finland | $17.1B | -25% | -2% | 13% | 23.5× | 7.2% | +8.5% |
| Metso METSO.HE | Finland | $15.8B | +14% | +8% | 15% | 23.6× | 15.3% | +9.6% |
| CNH Industrial CNH | United States | $14.3B | +5% | +1% | 13% | 21.1× | 7.4% | -7.0% |
| Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) BS6.SI | Singapore | $13.5B | +11% | +26% | 32% | 8.2× | -10.1% | +11.8% |
| XCMG Construction Machinery 000425.SZ | China | $12.6B | -28% | +8% | 8% | 11.0× | -3.2% | +6.4% |
| Hdksoe 009540.KS | South Korea | $12.5B | -48% | +23% | 23% | 4.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Sinotruk Hong Kong 3808.HK | Hong Kong | $12.3B | -12% | +38% | 7% | 9.4× | -3.2% | +1.5% |
Caterpillar has 55 bonds outstanding with $36.6B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like AA-. Weighted yield 5.02%, a spread of 48 bp over government bonds.
Caterpillar reported $49.4B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2026, up 120% from a year earlier and up 12% from the previous quarter. That is 0.6 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.26.