Caterpillar Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.41 (NYSE:CAT)

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a dividend of 1.41 per share by the industrial products company on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $5.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%.

Caterpillar has raised its dividend by an average of 6.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Caterpillar has a payout ratio of 25.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Caterpillar to earn $21.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.8%.

Caterpillar Trading Up 0.4 %

CAT traded up $1.62 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $390.01. The stock had a trading volume of 205,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,552,230. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $393.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $359.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $188.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.10. Caterpillar has a 1-year low of $259.12 and a 1-year high of $418.50.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $5.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.33 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $16.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Caterpillar had a net margin of 16.26% and a return on equity of 59.09%. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Caterpillar will post 21.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CAT shares. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Caterpillar from $399.00 to $456.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $299.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Caterpillar from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $365.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $435.00 to $460.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Caterpillar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $374.69.

Insider Activity at Caterpillar

In other news, Director Daniel M. Dickinson sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $418.00, for a total transaction of $543,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,079,968. The trade was a 20.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cheryl H. Johnson sold 2,664 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $378.84, for a total transaction of $1,009,229.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,906,356.84. This represents a 17.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,868 shares of company stock valued at $9,679,489 over the last quarter. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Caterpillar Company Profile

Caterpillar Inc manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives in worldwide. Its Construction Industries segment offers asphalt pavers, compactors, road reclaimers, forestry machines, cold planers, material handlers, track-type tractors, excavators, telehandlers, motor graders, and pipelayers; compact track, wheel, track-type, backhoe, and skid steer loaders; and related parts and tools.