For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL - April 27, 2012 - Today, Zacks Investment Ideas
feature highlights Features:
Caterpillar Inc.
(
CAT
).
Deere
(
DE
) and
Titan Machinery
(
TITN
).
3 Top Heavy Machinery Plays
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).
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CATERPILLAR INC (
CAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DEERE & CO (
DE
): Free Stock Analysis Report
TITAN MACHINERY (
TITN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
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