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    Caterpillar Fourth Quarter Revenues Jump 23 Percent Compared to Q420

    Feb. 2, 2022
    Caterpillar posted sales and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2021 of $13.8 billion, compared to $11.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 23-percent increase.

    Caterpillar posted sales and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2021 of $13.8 billion, compared to $11.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 23-percent increase. Operating profit margin was 11.7 percent for the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with 12.3 percent for the fourth quarter of 2020. Fourth-quarter 2021 profit per share was $3.91, compared with $1.42 in the year-ago quarter.

    For the full year, Caterpillar revenues were $51 billion, a 22-percent hike compared to 2020 when it posted $41.7 billion. The increase reflected higher end-user demand for equipment and services and the impact from changes in dealer inventories. Dealers decreased their inventories $2.9 billion in 2020, while remaining about flat in 2021. Operating profit margin was 13.5 percent for 2021, compared with 10.9 percent for 2020.  Full-year profit was $11.83 per share in 2021, compared with $5.46 per share in 2020.

    "I'm proud of our global team's continued resilience in what proved to be a challenging and dynamic operating environment,” said chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby. “We delivered adjusted operating profit margins and ME&T (Machine, Energy & Transportation) free cash flows consistent with our long-term targets established during our 2019 Investor Day. Amid ongoing supply chain constraints, our team continues to execute our strategy for long-term profitable growth while striving to meet customer demand."

    Sales were higher across Caterpillar’s three primary segments. In Construction Industries sales in Q421 were $5.736 billion compared to $4.508 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 27.2-percent increase. Resource Industries totaled $2.762 billion compared to $2.180 billion a year ago, a 26.7-percent climb. Energy & Transportation posted $5.728 billion in revenue compared to $4.811 billion in the year-ago quarter, a 19-percent hike.

    In North America, revenues soared 29 percent; in Latin America revenues jumped 40 percent; and in the Europe Africa and the Middle East region the increase was 24 percent. In Asia Pacific, the increase was 9 percent.

    In the oil-and-gas market, sales increased for reciprocating engines aftermarket parts in all regions, as well as increases for turbines and turbine-related services and reciprocating engines used in gas compression. In power generation, sales went up because of higher sales volume in reciprocating engines aftermarket parts and small reciprocating engines.

    About the Author

    Michael Roth | Editor

    Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.