Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd Invests $685,000 in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT)

Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,888 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CAT. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD bought a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the second quarter worth about $1,837,000. Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its stake in Caterpillar by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 1,381,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $460,162,000 after purchasing an additional 83,571 shares during the period. Black Diamond Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Caterpillar in the second quarter valued at approximately $231,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 5.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,069,840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,022,488,000 after buying an additional 165,358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Caterpillar during the second quarter worth approximately $2,733,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CAT. Evercore ISI upgraded Caterpillar from an “underperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $365.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $454.00 to $471.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $376.00 to $434.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Caterpillar from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $349.00 to $332.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Caterpillar from $435.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. 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, Caterpillar has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $384.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Caterpillar

In other news, CAO William E. Schaupp sold 968 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.98, for a total value of $368,788.64. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,686 shares in the company, valued at $642,332.28. This represents a 36.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cheryl H. Johnson sold 2,664 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $378.84, for a total transaction of $1,009,229.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,906,356.84. This represents a 17.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,868 shares of company stock valued at $9,679,489 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Caterpillar Stock Up 3.4 %

Shares of Caterpillar stock opened at $362.82 on Tuesday. Caterpillar Inc. has a 12-month low of $276.94 and a 12-month high of $418.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.17 billion, a PE ratio of 16.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $381.88 and its 200-day moving average is $365.94.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $5.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.33 by ($0.16). Caterpillar had a return on equity of 59.09% and a net margin of 16.26%. The company had revenue of $16.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.52 EPS. Caterpillar’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Caterpillar Inc. will post 21.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Caterpillar Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be given a dividend of $1.41 per share. This represents a $5.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 21st. Caterpillar’s payout ratio is 26.15%.

Caterpillar Company 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.