it won't see 59 again for years..
>>Thursday October 28, 2:32 pm Eastern Time
Caterpillar falls after analysts meeting
CHICAGO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Shares of Caterpillar Inc. were down despite a broad market rally Thursday, a day after the world's largest construction equipment maker briefed analysts on plans to slash dealer inventories and said price pressures are expected to continue.
''I don't think that they gave a particularly upbeat outlook,'' Lisa Shalett, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, said.
Caterpillar, a Dow Jones Industrial Average component, was down 15/16 at 54-7/16 Thursday, while the Dow was up 235 points.
Caterpillar told analysts that it believes annual price increases will become increasingly difficult, ABN AMRO analyst Robert McCarthy Jr. said in a research report.
A company spokeswoman confirmed that the company said price pressure, seen in the past few quarters, was expected to continue.
The company also told analysts that it plans to cut $1 billion from North American dealer inventories in the next four years, analysts said. That would free up capital for dealers to invest in rental fleets, McCarthy said.
While agreeing that the plan made sense in the long term, Shalett said there was some concern that the plan would hurt earnings in 2000.
The Caterpillar spokeswoman confirmed that the company said it planned to cut dealer inventories by $1 billion, but could not confirm the time frame.<< |
