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    672287b701ddf4390d5ea16e Caterpillar Medium Dozer Enhancements 20242
    1. News & Analysis
    2. Wall Street Beat

    Caterpillar Revenues Slide 4 Percent in Third Quarter

    Oct. 30, 2024
    The decrease in sales volume was mainly driven by lower sales of equipment to end users.

    Sales and revenues for the third quarter of 2024 were $16.1 billion for Caterpillar, a 4-percent year-over-year decrease compared with $16.8 billion in the third quarter of 2023. The decrease was attributed primarily to lower sales volume.

    The decrease in sales volume was mainly driven by lower sales of equipment to end users. Also, changes in dealer inventories had an unfavorable impact to sales volume. Dealer inventory increased less during the third quarter of 2024 than during the third quarter of 2023. In the three primary segments, sales were lower in Construction Industries and Resource Industries and higher in Energy & Transportation.

    Operating profit margin was 19.5 percent for the third quarter, compared with 20.5 percent for the third quarter of 2023. Adjusted operating profit margin was 20 percent for Q324, compared with 20.8 for the same period last year. 

    “I’d like to thank our global team for delivering strong adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted profit per share while generating robust ME&T free cash flow,” said chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby. “Our third-quarter results reflect the benefit of the diversity of our end markets.”

    The Construction Industries segment declined 9 percent while Resource Industries dipped 10 percent. Energy & Transportation increased by 5 percent. The Construction Industries segment slid by 11 percent in North America, 15 percent in Europre, Africa and the Middle East, 12 percent in Asia/Pacific, while the segment jumped 19 percent in Latin America.

    About the Author

    Michael Roth | Editor

    Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.