Investing.com - Global construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) fell more than 1% in pre-market trade on Thursday after reporting weaker-than-expected second quarter revenue figures.
Caterpillar said earnings per share came in at $1.69, beating expectations for earnings of $1.52 per share.
The company’s second quarter revenue totaled $14.15billion, below forecasts for revenue of $14.5 billion.
"We're pleased with our second-quarter results, particularly the improvement in profit. We increased the bottom line despite a weak quarter for our Resource Industries segment, which is principally mining,” said Caterpillar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman.
With half of 2014 now complete, Caterpillar tightened the outlook range for the year. The updated outlook for 2014 sales and revenues is a range of $54 to $56 billion. The previous outlook for sales and revenues was $56 billion in a range of plus or minus 5%.
The range of expectations is tighter and the mid-point of the outlook is slightly lower.
Despite a slightly lower mid-point of the sales and revenues outlook the company is increasing its 2014 profit per share outlook.
With sales and revenues at $55 billion, the mid-point of the outlook range, the revised profit outlook for 2014 including restructuring costs of about $400 million is $5.75 per share, an improvement from the previous outlook of $5.55 per share.
Caterpillar is announcing its intention to repurchase approximately $2.5 billion of Caterpillar common stock during the third quarter of 2014. This repurchase is part of the $10 billion stock repurchase authorization previously approved by the Board of Directors in the first quarter of 2014.
Following the release of the report, shares in Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) declined 1.6% in pre-market trade.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was upbeat. The Dow indicated a gain of 0.2% at the open, the S&P 500 pointed to a rise of 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 tacked on 0.3%.