Investors are looking for stocks that going to be among the first
to participate in the recovery of the economy. Some of the early
signs that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter
is when we see heavy machinery company's grow revenue and earnings.
Let's take a look at three of the top heavy machinery companies in
the world. We will start with industrial machine and heavy vehicle
company Caterpillar Inc. Then we will head to the farm and look at
how Deere has done lately and we can wrap things up with Titan
Machinery.
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc.
(
CAT
) manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel
and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and
diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. It big machinery for big
business and it has the revenues to prove it.
Caterpillar Inc. had revenues of more than $60 billion in 2011, up
41% from the $42.5 billion in 2010. The 2010 revenue was also a
healthy increase of 31% from the 2009 depressed revenue number of
$32.4 billion which was 37% lower than the 2008 level due to the
global recession.
Over the last several quarters, CAT has seen an excellent pattern
of increasing earnings. Just as important as increasing estimates
is the idea of not disappointing Wall Street. In six of the last
seven quarter, CAT has topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an
average of 18%. Those beats, however, did not translate into big
moves for the stock, or at least on the day immediately following
the report. The average move in the stock price was a loss of less
than one quarter of one percent.
It should also be noted that CAT pays a $0.46 per share quarterly
dividend. That works out to be about 1.75% yield on the stock. The
company also has shown a pattern of increasing its dividend, with
payment of $0.42 per quarter in 2009 increasing in July of 2010 to
$0.44 per quarter and up to the current level in July of 2011. The
increase in earnings, higher earnings estimates and consistent
beats makes Caterpillar Inc. a
Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy)
.
Deere
Deere
(
DE
) provides products and services primarily for agriculture and
forestry worldwide. Its Agriculture and Turf segment manufactures
and distributes a line of farm and turf equipment and related
service parts, which include large, medium, and utility tractors,
loaders, combines, corn pickers, cotton and sugarcane harvesters,
and related equipment.
Deere is also one the bigger companies in the heavy machinery
segment, and it's too has massive revenues. $32 billion in 2011
sales were 23% ahead of the $26 billion the company posted in 2010.
The company also saw growth of 13% in 2010, due to the depressed
revenues in the global recession of 2009.
Earnings growth is a different story for DE as opposed to CAT. The
last three quarters have seen consecutive negative earnings growth,
something investors usually don't want to see. The chart below
really tells the story of why the stock is lower by more than 15%
over the past year. Lower earnings almost always translates into
lower stock prices.
Like CAT, DE pays a dividend of $0.46 per share, but because of the
lower stock price, the yield is slightly higher at 2.25%. The
company also has a history of increasing the dividend, but not with
a discernible pattern. Deere paid quarterly dividends of $0.28 for
eight quarters before bumping it up to $0.30 in 2010 for two
quarters and then to $0.35 for two more quarters. The three
previous quarters saw a dividend of $0.41 per share. While Deere
has not reported below the Zacks Consensus Estimate, it has seen
lower earnings and lower earnings estimates. This has contributed
to the Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).
Titan Machinery
Titan Machinery
(
TITN
) is the smallest company of this group, but sometime being nimble
can be a big benefit. TITN was recently written up as a
Value Rank Buy
.
Unlike its much larger counterparts, TITN saw revenue growth
despite the global recession in 2009. That should make some take
notice, but the story keeps getting better as its growth rate has
increased in each of the last three years. Revenues are still
relatively low in comparison at $1.6 billion for 2011, but that was
52% ahead of the 2010 level of $1.1 billion.
The earnings picture for TITN is a little different than what we
saw in CAT and in DE. With the last two quarters showing impressive
growth, the consistency aspect that CAT has is not here. The growth
however has translated into an impressive run for the stock price.
Over the last six months the stock has moved higher by more than
50% easily making it the best performer of the group.
Due to the higher earnings and the pattern of strong earnings
surprises, Titan Machinery is a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy).
Brian Bolan is the Aggressive Growth Stock Strategist for
Zacks.com. He is also the Editor in charge of the
Zacks Home
Run Investor service
You can follow him at
twitter.com/bbolan1
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
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