Caterpillar earned the highest third-quarter profit per share in its history after raising prices to blunt the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Overall, revenue grew 18 percent to $13.5 billion in the three months through September, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company said Tuesday. Profit rose 63 percent to $1.7 billion, or $2.88 per share.
Operating costs increased to $11.4 billion, however, as the costs of goods sold – a key indicator of the impact of the new levies – grew 17.5 percent to $9 billion. Total raw material costs were up 2 percent in the quarter, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield told investors. Caterpillar said price hikes, along with “operational excellence and cost discipline,” are expected to offset material cost increases from tariffs in the last three months of the year.
Sales climbed 22 percent in North America and 28 percent in Asia. Despite a growing trade skirmish with China, Chief Executive Officer Jim Umpleby said the market “continues to be healthy.”
Umpleby attributed the overall results to “focusing on our customers’ success and executing our strategy for profitable growth.”
Caterpillar’s stock fell 7.65 percent to $118.87 in New York trading.
In July, the company said it would raise prices in 2018 to mitigate an expected $200 million in added costs as a result of the tariffs. At the time, Caterpillar reported a 112 percent increase in profit, a second-quarter record. Umpleby told investors the company recently announced to dealers a price increase of 1 percent to 4 percent effective in January 2019.
Trump has threatened to hike the tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese products to 25 percent in 2019 if a trade deal is not reached with Beijing, a move that would have a significant impact on industries like automotive and retail. Caterpillar, however, could be largely spared.
“We were already hit with the earlier tariffs, so we don’t think a later change will have an impact on us,” Umpleby said, adding that the company has not seen a surge in purchases in advance of a potential hike in tariffs.
[Also read: Wall Street alarm: Tariff fallout drags Dow Jones down 500 points]
