Caterpillar Inc, the world's largest maker of construction equipment, reported a 55 percent drop in quarterly profit on Monday as customers sold off existing inventories rather than purchase new machines. For the fourth quarter, the company posted net income of $697 million, or $1.04 per share, compared with $1.55 billion, or $2.32 per share, in the year-ago quarter.Revenue fell 7 percent to $16.08 billion.Caterpillar expects to earn $7 to $9 per share in 2013.Earlier this month Caterpillar said it discovered accounting fraud at a Chinese coal mining supplier it bought in 2012. Caterpillar wrote down most of the $650 million deal, zapping fourth-quarter results by 87 cents per share.
Caterpillar Inc. (Caterpillar) is a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Shares of CAT remained unchanged at $95.58. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $78.25 and as high as $116.95. On average, 6057470 shares of CAT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 73126.
Source
