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 $338.00, down 7.02% from the previous day, and has increased 54.6% in one year. It has overperformed other stocks in the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry by 0.38 percentage points. Caterpillar stock is currently +65.65% from its 52-week low of $204.04, and -11.52% from its 52-week high of $382.01.
There are currently 510.14M shares of CAT outstanding. The market capitalization of CAT is $172.43B. In the past 24 hours, 6.44M 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.
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- 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.
- Provide your personal info to start your new trading account.
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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 overvalued based on its P/E ratio of 16.7x, relative to Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry P/E ratio of 13.64x
- CAT could be overvalued based on its P/B ratio of 8.84x, relative to Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry P/B ratio of 4.72x
- CAT may be overvalued based on its PEG ratio of 2.46x
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 11.3% to 15.4% in the past year.
- CAT earnings of $13.63B is not sufficient to cover its interest payments.
- CAT's operating cash flow of $12.89B allows it to safely service it's debt of $37.88B.
- 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 3.49.
Do Wall Street analysts think it's a good time to buy CAT stock
Out of 12 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
Mircea Dobre, a top 4% analyst from Baird maintains CAT with a sell rating and raises their CAT price target from $210.00 to $257.00, on Feb 6, 2024.
Baird's Mircea Dobre raised their price target on Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) by 22.4% from $210 to $257 on 2024/02/06. The analyst maintained their Sell rating on the stock.
Demand momentum is "clearly moderating" alongside decelerating pricing, the analyst told investors after reviewing Caterpillar's Q4 and FY 2023 report, released on 2024/02/05.
However, dealer inventory decline in Q4 was a positive, with "some noise" suggesting the destocking process is not over, Dobre noted.
Earnings Report
Caterpillar reported:
For Q4 2023:
- EPS of $5.23, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.76 and, by 35.5%, Q4 2022’s $3.86.
- Revenue of $17.07B, which was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate and beat Q4 2022’s $16.6B by 2.8%.
- Operating margin of 18.9%.
For FY 2023:
- EPS of $21.21, which beat FY 2022’s $13.84 by 53%.
- Revenue of $67.1B, which beat FY 2022’s $59.4B by 13%.
Management guided:
For Q1 2024:
- Revenue to be in line with Q1 2023.
- Operating margin to be in ine with Q1 2023.
For FY 2024:
- Revenue to be in line with FY 2023.
- To be another year of services growth as the company continues to target $28B by 2026.
Chairman & CEO Jim Umpleby commented: “I'm very proud of our global team's strong performance as they achieved the best year in our 98-year history, including record full-year sales and revenues, record EPS and record ME&T free cash flow.
“We remain committed to serving our customers, executing our strategy and investing for long-term profitable growth.”
Seth Weber, a top 17% analyst from Wells Fargo maintains CAT with a hold rating and raises their CAT price target from $290.00 to $325.00, on Feb 6, 2024.
Angel Castillo, a bottom 9% analyst from Morgan Stanley initiates coverage on CAT with a hold rating and announces their CAT price target of $270.00, on Jan 8, 2024.
Chad Dillard, a top 15% analyst from Bernstein maintains CAT with a hold rating and raises their CAT price target from $216.00 to $245.00, on Dec 21, 2023.
Stanley Elliott, a top 3% analyst from Stifel Nicolaus maintains CAT with a strong buy rating and raises their CAT price target from $285.00 to $293.00, on Dec 19, 2023.
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 $10.34B. In the past 5 year, CAT's earnings have grown by 14.27% per year. This was slower than the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry average of 19.16%.
Last year, CAT revenue was $67.06B. During the last five year, CAT's revenue has increased by 4.15% per year. This was slower than the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry average of 6.5%.
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 bought more shares than they have sold.
Derek Owens, CLO General Counsel of CAT, was the latest CAT insider to sell. They sold $26,300.88 worth of CAT stock on Apr 1, 2024.
Dig into more about who owns CAT stock here.
Can I get consistent income from CAT stock?
Caterpillar pays a dividend of 1.54%, compared to the Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery industry's average dividend yield of 2.72%. If you owned $1,000 of CAT stock, you would have been paid $15.38 last year.
Caterpillar dividend payments have consistently grown over the past decade and have remained stable.
Get more info about Caterpillar dividend yield and history here.
What do other investors have to say about CAT?
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Step 5: Place your CAT trade
There are two main types of orders:
- Market order: A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the best price on the market.
Market orders are mostly sufficient. - Limit order: A limit order is an order to buy or sell a security at a specific price (or better).
If you want to be certain you're buying or selling at a specific price, use a limit order.
Hit the Open button and your broker will execute the order.
If you want additional help investing in stocks on eToro, watch the helpful video below:
Step 6: Keep an eye on your CAT investment
Now that you own some CAT stock, you'll want to stay up-to-date on your stock purchase.
Put CAT on a watchlist to keep track of your CAT stock.
CAT Feed
How to Buy Stock in Caterpillar
To reiterate, here are the 6 steps to buy Caterpillar stock:
- 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 get the latest news on your investment in Caterpillar, create your watchlist below.
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