Caterpillar 1st Qtr. Profit Up 426%

Caterpillar reported first-quarter 2011 sales and revenues of $12.949 billion, up 57% from $8.238 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Profit was a record $1.225 billion in the quarter, an increase of 426% from $233 million in the first quarter of 2010.

“I am very pleased with our first-quarter results — demand continued to improve, we increased production, cost control was excellent, and our operating profit margin improved. We generated more than $1.6 billion of operating cash flow from our Machinery and Power Systems businesses, an increase of more than 50 percent, and our debt-to-capital ratio dropped more than 4 percentage points from year-end 2010,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman.

First-quarter profit was $1.225 billion, compared with a profit of $233 million in the first quarter of 2010. The improvement in profit was primarily a result of significantly higher sales volume. In addition, $90 million of the improvement was due to the absence of a tax charge from the first quarter of 2010 related to enactment of U.S. health care legislation.

The company said their outlook for 2011 has improved. Sales and revenues are now expected to be in a range of $52 to $54 billion. The revised outlook reflects higher expected sales and revenues and higher profit per share than their previous record year of 2008 when sales and revenues were $51.3 billion. ◆