You may have noticed a trend in this still young earnings season: Several companies -- including oilfield services providers Halliburton
Perhaps the most surprising victim of this treatment was Caterpillar
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.09 per share on $10.65 billion in sales.
But despite significantly topping these expectations, the company's shares lost $0.99, or 1.2%, in a moderately improved market on Thursday. However, shares of Amsterdam-based CNH Global
Demand for Caterpillar's products and services differed in the quarter, with developing countries like China, Indonesia, and India representing half of the increase in machinery sales volumes. But looking closer to home, Doug Oberhelman, who became the company's CEO after the close of the second quarter noted that while management expects economic growth in the United States, "the recovery is weaker than we've seen historically ..." He also said that:
We encourage government policymakers to advance pro-business initiatives and a growth agenda. In addition, they should avoid policy decisions that may create trade tensions between the United States and other key trading partners and avoid tax policy that puts U.S. multinationals, like Caterpillar, at a competitive disadvantage.
All in all, however, Oberhelman and his colleagues clearly are becoming increasingly optimistic about their company's direction. As such, they raised their 2010 earnings expectations to $3.80 to $4.00, up from an earlier $3.15 to $3.85. Further, they're now looking for 2011 revenues near $50 billion, a healthy hike from their $41 billion to $42 billion expectation for this year.
We'll have to wait a month for quarterly results from Deere & Co.