Cheerleading for Caterpillar
All-time high quarterly numbers at Caterpillar
Caterpillar is reporting record third quarter sales and revenues and the best ever third quarter profit per share. Caterpillar Friday reported third quarter 2007 sales and revenue of 11.4 billion dollars. Third quarter profit totaled $927-million or $1.40 per share. 2006’s third quarter profit was $10.5 billion, or a $1.14 per share. Caterpillar is expecting 2007 to close out with sales and revenues of about 44 billion dollars and a profit per share in the range of $5.20 to $5.60. Dugan says the company is already turning an optimistic eye toward 2008.
Caterpillar net disappoints; profit forecast cut
Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N: Quote, Profile , Research), the world’s top maker of earth-moving equipment, diesel engines and gas turbines, posted disappointing quarterly earnings on Friday and cut its full-year forecast, sending its shares down 3.5 percent.
Both articles are accurate in their information, but the report from WMBD tells me that they are either cheerleading for Cat, or they didn’t understand exactly what they were reporting as there is no indication of what those numbers actually mean.
On a related note, can someone explain to me why Caterpillar holds their stockholder and analyst meetings in Chicago and not Peoria? I don’t buy the argument that it’s a transportation issue, and there is no lacking of meeting space in town. Cat certainly has the clout to bring the big whig analysts here, so is it that they have the same thing so many Peorians have- a disfunctional view of and attitude towards Peoria?
October 19th, 2007 at 11:46 am
[...] Peoria Illinoisan thinks he’s caught a local news provider doing a bit of cheerleading for Caterpillar. I’m not so sure that’s the case, but you can visit his site and judge for yourself. [...]
October 19th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
or WMBD simply repeated Caterpillars spin as it was told to them…
October 20th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I also was surprised when I saw the PJS’s article this a.m. compared to the Chicago Tribune’s article — same spin issue. PJS went with “record-high earnings” and Trib went with “shares fall because record-high earnings fail to meet Wall Street’s mark.” (Which is a sad, sad commentary on what drives our stock market, btw.)
“can someone explain to me why Caterpillar holds their stockholder and analyst meetings in Chicago and not Peoria?”
This isn’t unusual; many public companies hold their meetings in not-hometown. It’s an issue of transit, of media attention (many more newspapers will send coverage to Chicago than Peoria), of analyst time (some of these dudes are at these things CONSTANTLY and if they have to leave town to get to them — or take a connecting flight — that won’t happen), of convenience, etc. They’re also a non-stop extravaganza for the executives involved, who sometimes feel like their entire year is eaten up by SEC filings, NYSE filings, shareholder meetings, etc. Even a lot of suburban firms just go downtown for the day so they can get in, get out, and go home with the least amount of hassle.
Some places hold their meetings on-site (or near-site) when it’s a special anniversary year. And sometimes a company in Chicago might hold its meeting in, say, New York or LA for logisitical reasons. (Smaller companies, especially privately-held ones, I’ve noticed, often use shareholder meetings as an excuse to visit vacation destinations.) Kraft Foods, for example, is HQ’d in Northfield, IL, (20 miles outside the Loop, and allegedly built on a graveyard) and held their 2007 shareholder meeting in East Hanover, NJ.
It’s probably not really a snub to Peoria, it’s probably a, “Let’s get this the hell over with with the least amount of pain possible,” from Cat corporate.
Also, Cat is not a sexy company. Analysts may be willing to haul ass to Mountain View for Google, because Google is sexy and now. Earth-movers are not sexy. (And that’s a criticism of the analysts, not the company. Non-sexy companies are longer-term strong performers than sexy ones.)