Hoese & Co LLP Invests $57,000 in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT)

Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in Caterpillar during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC increased its stake in shares of Caterpillar by 42.9% in the 3rd quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC now owns 100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC raised its position in shares of Caterpillar by 130.0% in the 4th quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 115 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. 70.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Caterpillar from an “underperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $365.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $299.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Caterpillar from $471.00 to $455.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com downgraded Caterpillar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Caterpillar from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $349.00 to $332.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Caterpillar presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $380.60.

Caterpillar Stock Performance

CAT opened at $386.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.40. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $380.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $367.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.38 billion, a PE ratio of 17.90, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.13. Caterpillar Inc. has a 52-week low of $277.66 and a 52-week high of $418.50.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $5.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.33 by ($0.16). Caterpillar had a net margin of 16.26% and a return on equity of 59.09%. The firm had revenue of $16.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.52 earnings per share. Caterpillar’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Caterpillar Inc. will post 21.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Caterpillar Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be issued a $1.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $5.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. Caterpillar’s payout ratio is 26.15%.

Insider Activity at Caterpillar

In other Caterpillar news, CAO William E. Schaupp sold 968 shares of Caterpillar stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $380.98, for a total transaction of $368,788.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $642,332.28. The trade was a 36.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cheryl H. Johnson sold 2,664 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $378.84, for a total transaction of $1,009,229.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,951 shares in the company, valued at $4,906,356.84. The trade was a 17.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,868 shares of company stock worth $13,480,389. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Caterpillar Profile

Caterpillar Inc manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives in worldwide. Its Construction Industries segment offers asphalt pavers, compactors, road reclaimers, forestry machines, cold planers, material handlers, track-type tractors, excavators, telehandlers, motor graders, and pipelayers; compact track, wheel, track-type, backhoe, and skid steer loaders; and related parts and tools.