Shares of Caterpillar Inc. CAT sank 4.1% in premarket trading Tuesday, reversing an earlier gain of as much as 4.7%, after the construction and mining equipment maker reported a big third-quarter profit beat, boosted by both higher prices and higher volume, but provided a tepid fourth-quarter sales outlook. Net income rose to $2.79 billion, or $5.45 a share, from $2.04 billion, or $3.87 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share $5.52 was well above the FactSet consensus $4.80. Revenue grew 12.1% to $16.81 billion, to beat the FactSet consensus of $16.57 billion. Construction Industries revenue grew 12% to $7.00 billion to beat the FactSet consensus of $6.60 billion and Energy and Transportation revenue increased 11% to $6.86 billion to top expectations of $6.53 billion, while Resource Industries revenue rose 9% to $3.35 billion to just miss expectations of $3.39 billion. For the fourth quarter, the company said revenue is expected to be “slightly higher,” while the FactSet consensus of $17.45 billion implies 5.1% growth. The stock has declined 8.7% over the past three months through Monday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA has lost 7.4%.
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