CAT vs. DE, PCAR, CMI, WAB, TTC, AGCO, OSK, FSS, TEX, and TRN
Should you be buying Caterpillar stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Caterpillar include Deere & Company (DE), PACCAR (PCAR), Cummins (CMI), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB), Toro (TTC), AGCO (AGCO), Oshkosh (OSK), Federal Signal (FSS), Terex (TEX), and Trinity Industries (TRN). These companies are all part of the "construction & farm machinery & heavy trucks" industry.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends and profitability.
Caterpillar has higher revenue and earnings than Deere & Company. Deere & Company is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Caterpillar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Caterpillar received 36 more outperform votes than Deere & Company when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.25% of users gave Deere & Company an outperform vote while only 62.51% of users gave Caterpillar an outperform vote.
Caterpillar has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Deere & Company has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Caterpillar presently has a consensus price target of $329.63, suggesting a potential downside of 5.94%. Deere & Company has a consensus price target of $426.71, suggesting a potential upside of 10.07%. Given Deere & Company's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Deere & Company is more favorable than Caterpillar.
Caterpillar has a net margin of 16.79% compared to Deere & Company's net margin of 16.15%. Caterpillar's return on equity of 58.61% beat Deere & Company's return on equity.
In the previous week, Deere & Company had 3 more articles in the media than Caterpillar. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Deere & Company and 25 mentions for Caterpillar. Caterpillar's average media sentiment score of 0.71 beat Deere & Company's score of 0.19 indicating that Caterpillar is being referred to more favorably in the media.
71.0% of Caterpillar shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.6% of Deere & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Caterpillar shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Deere & Company shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Caterpillar pays an annual dividend of $5.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Deere & Company pays an annual dividend of $5.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Caterpillar pays out 25.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Deere & Company pays out 17.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
Summary
Caterpillar beats Deere & Company on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CAT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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