Caterpillar 3Q Sales Jump, But Wall Street Wanted More

By Connor Hart

Caterpillar said sales climbed in the latest quarter, though the increase failed to clear Wall Street's high expectations.

The company--known for its giant yellow dump trucks, bulldozers and other equipment--posted a third-quarter profit of $3.29 billion, or $7.13 a share, compared with $2.3 billion, or $4.88 a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, earnings were $7.20 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $7.06 a share.

Total sales and revenue jumped 17% to $20.68 billion but came in below Wall Street models for $20.76 billion. The company attributed the increase to higher sales volumes and favorable price realizations.

Shares fell 8.6%, to $652, in premarket trading Thursday.

Chief Executive Joe Creed said the recent quarter's results reflect the durability of Caterpillar's end markets, with strong order rates and a record backlog.

Sales across Caterpillar's power-and-energy division rose 18%, to $8.78 billion. The quickly growing division has benefited from sales of large power-generation sets and turbines, which are powering data-center projects amid the artificial-intelligence boom.

The equipment maker's construction-industries unit logged sales of $7.98 billion, also up 18% from a year ago, while its resource-industries division posted sales of $4.62 billion, a 15% increase from last year.

Looking ahead, Caterpillar continues to expect total sales and revenue to grow in the mid- to high-teens range for the year. The company also maintained its forecast for tariff costs to total about $2.2 billion.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 29, 2026 07:07 ET (11:07 GMT)