How to Buy Caterpillar Stock
Caterpillar Inc
Caterpillar is a agriculture company located in Illinois, United States, which is part of the Industrials sector, and is traded under the ticker CAT on the NYSE exchange.
Caterpillar stock last closed at $335.78, down 0.14% from the previous day, and has decreased 7.89% in one year. It has overperformed other stocks in the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry by 0 percentage points. Caterpillar stock is currently +9.36% from its 52-week low of $307.05, and -19.77% from its 52-week high of $418.50.
There are currently 484.9M shares of CAT outstanding. The market capitalization of CAT is $162.82B. In the past 24 hours, 6.75M CAT shares were traded.
How to Buy Caterpillar Stock
Not sure how to invest in Caterpillar stock? Here's how.
- Figure out where to buy Caterpillar stock: You need to decide on a stock brokerage, but don't worry - we've sifted through dozens of online brokerages and apps to help you choose where to buy Caterpillar stock.
- Sign up for a brokerage account: Sign up for 0% fee trading with the highest-rated brokerage we've found.
- Deposit money your brokerage account: Pick your payment method and add your info.
- Research Caterpillar stock: The Caterpillar ticker symbol is CAT. Is Caterpillar stock a good investment? Should you buy shares of CAT? How do CAT's underlying business fundamentals look? Do top analysts think Caterpillar is a good buy? Why has CAT's stock price moved recently? (Hint: Our stock market research website can help you evaluate if CAT is a good stock to buy).
- Place your CAT trade: Decide if you will purchase CAT shares at the current market price or use a limit order to buy CAT stock at a particular price.
- Keep an eye on your CAT investment: Create a watchlist to get live updates on your position in Caterpillar shares.
Step 1: Figure out where to buy Caterpillar stock
You will need an online brokerage account to access the NYSE market and buy CAT stock.
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Open eToro AccountStep 2: Sign up for a brokerage account
Now that you've picked your brokerage, you'll need to fill out some personal information so you are able to buy CAT stock today.
How to Open a New Brokerage Account on eToro
- Click here to get started.eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
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Step 3: Deposit money your brokerage account
Now that you have finished signing up on the highest rated stock app, you need to deposit funds:
Watch the tutorial below to see the process of transferring funds into your new investment account.
Step 4: Research Caterpillar stock
After you have identified the best place to buy Caterpillar stock, it's crucial to analyze their stock prior to buying, so you truly understand the risk and opportunity.
Overview of key CAT info
Caterpillar Overview
WallStreetZen was designed to help average investors do more in-depth fundamental analysis quickly.
You can see all of the due diligence checks on CAT's stock page.
Is CAT stock undervalued or overvalued?
Analysts use many financial metrics, analyses, models, and charts to gauge CAT's intrinsic value.
Using relative valuations ratios:
- CAT may be undervalued based on its P/E ratio of 15.15x, relative to Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry P/E ratio of 15.94x
- CAT could be overvalued based on its P/B ratio of 8.35x, relative to Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry P/B ratio of 4.68x
- CAT may be overvalued based on its PEG ratio of 4.62x
You can access more valuation research on CAT's stock here.
A quick look at CAT Financials
Signs that CAT is financially healthy:
- There are more short-term assets than long-term liabilities on the CAT balance sheet.
- There are more short-term assets than short-term liabilities on the CAT balance sheet.
- CAT profit margin has gone up from 15.4% to 16.7% in the past year.
- CAT earnings of $13.93B is not sufficient to cover its interest payments.
- CAT's operating cash flow of $12.04B allows it to safely service it's debt of $38.41B.
- Total CAT debt is lower than 5 years ago, relative to shareholder equity.
Signs that CAT is not financially healthy:
- CAT has a relatively high debt to equity ratio of 3.5.
Do Wall Street analysts think it's a good time to buy CAT stock
Out of 10 Equities analysts who research CAT, the consensus analyst rating on CAT is a Buy
It's important to keep in mind that analyst ratings are not recommendations, nor are they financial advice.
Most Recent CAT Analyst Recommendations
Tami Zakaria, a top 12% analyst from JP Morgan maintains CAT with a strong buy rating and lowers their CAT price target from $515.00 to $490.00, on Jan 31, 2025.
Michael Feniger, a bottom 27% analyst from Bank of America maintains CAT with a strong buy rating and lowers their CAT price target from $452.00 to $414.00, on Jan 31, 2025.
Angel Castillo, a bottom 25% analyst from Morgan Stanley maintains CAT with a strong sell rating and lowers their CAT price target from $330.00 to $300.00, on Jan 31, 2025.
Stephen Volkmann, a top 18% analyst from Jefferies maintains CAT with a strong buy rating and raises their CAT price target from $455.00 to $475.00, on Dec 6, 2024.
Mircea Dobre, a top 5% analyst from Baird maintains CAT with a sell rating and raises their CAT price target from $299.00 to $300.00, on Oct 31, 2024.
Baird's Mircea Dobre raised their price target on Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) by 0.3% from $299 to $300 on 2024/10/31. The analyst maintained their Sell rating on the stock.
Caterpillar reported its Q3 2024 earnings on 2024/10/30.
Dobre contextualized the quarter's miss as "the first Y/Y decline in operating income post-COVID."
Looking ahead, the analyst cautioned that Caterpillar's pricing is losing momentum as price/cost support to margin is "rapidly fading" after record 2023 levels.
Earnings Report
For Q3 2024, Caterpillar reported:
- EPS of $5.17, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.33 and Q3 2023 by 6%.
- Revenue of $16.1B, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $16.35B and Q3 2023 by 4%.
Management guided:
For Q4 2024:
- Revenue down slightly Y/Y.
For FY 2024:
- Revenue of $64.5B, down from FY 2023's $67B.
Chairman & CEO Jim Umpleby commented: “I'd like to thank our global team for delivering strong adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted profit per share while generating robust ME&T free cash flow.
“Our third-quarter results reflect the benefit of the diversity of our end markets.”
You can dig deeper into what analysts are projecting on the Caterpillar stock forecast page.
CAT Trading Indicators
CAT Revenue
Last year, CAT earnings were $10.79B. In the past 5 year, CAT's earnings have grown by 15.36% per year. This was faster than the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry average of 14.63%.
Last year, CAT revenue was $64.81B. During the last five year, CAT's revenue has increased by 3.79% per year. This was faster than the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry average of 3.71%.
Dive into CAT's earnings and revenue performance here.
Latest Insiders Trades at CAT
Over the last 12 months, executives and large shareholders at CAT have sold more shares than they have bought.
Andrew R. J. Bonfield, Chief Financial Officer of CAT, was the latest CAT insider to sell. They sold $146,385.00 worth of CAT stock on Mar 4, 2025.
Dig into more about who owns CAT stock here.
Can I get consistent income from CAT stock?
No, Caterpillar doesn't provide an income stream by paying out dividends.
What do other investors have to say about CAT?
One of the reasons eToro is our top-rated brokerage is because of its social trading community.
Click below to find out what other investors have to say.
Step 5: Place your CAT trade
You have two primary order types:
- Market order: A market order is an order to buy or sell a security at the best price on the market.
Market orders are mostly sufficient. - Limit order: A limit order enables you to buy or sell a stock at a specific price (or better).
If you want to make sure you're buying or selling at a given price, use a limit order.
Press the Open button and your broker will execute your order.
If you require additional help buying stocks on eToro, watch the helpful video below:
Step 6: Keep an eye on your CAT investment
Now that you own some CAT shares, you'll want to stay up-to-date on your company.
Add CAT to a watchlist to get notified of important updates regarding your CAT stock.
CAT Feed
How to Buy Stock in Caterpillar
To reiterate, here are the 6 steps to buy stock in Caterpillar:
- Figure out where to buy Caterpillar stock
- Sign up for a brokerage account
- Deposit money your brokerage account
- Research Caterpillar stock
- Place your CAT trade
- Keep an eye on your CAT investment
If you need a place to buy stocks, eToro is our favorite option.
Get Started with eToro TodayIf you would like to monitor your investment in Caterpillar, hit the button below to create your watchlist.
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