Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) reported Friday that its first-quarter profit climbed to $1.23 billion, or $1.84 a share, from $233 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue grew to $12.95 billion from $8.24 billion. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of $1.30 a share on revenue of $11.4 billion.
"I am very pleased with our first-quarter results--demand continued to improve, we increased production, cost control was excellent, and our operating profit margin improved. We generated more than $1.6 billion of operating cash flow from our Machinery and Power Systems (M&PS) businesses, an increase of more than 50 percent, and our debt-to-capital ratio dropped more than 4 percentage points from year-end 2010," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman. "We have the right strategy, and it's squarely focused on helping our customers win. Our new organization is in place, is focused on execution and is getting the job done. Given the scale of the volume ramp-up over the past year we also need to recognize the tremendous job that our suppliers and dealers have done to support us and our customers," added Oberhelman.
Looking ahead, the company lifted its 2011 profit target to $6.25 to $6.75 a share, from near $6 a share, compared to the analyst target of $6.25 a share.
Caterpillar shares rallied more than 3% in Friday's pre-market trading.
Full Disclosure: None.
