Caterpillar posted third quarter 2023 sales and revenues of $16.810 billion, compared to $14.994 billion for the third quarter of 2022, a 12.1-percent increase. Operating profit margin was 20.5 percent for the third quarter of 2023, compared with 16.2 percent for the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter 2023 profit per share was $5.45, compared with third quarter 2022 profit per share of $3.87.
The increase was because of favorable price realization and higher sales volume, the company said, driven by higher sales of equipment to end users, partially offset by the impact from changes in dealer inventories and lower service sales volume. Dealer inventory increased more during the third quarter of 2022 than during the third quarter of 2023.
Sales were higher in all three primary Caterpillar segments.
The Construction Industries segment increased by 12 percent, Resource Industries jumped 9 percent and Energy & Transportation hiked 11 percent. Profit increased 53 percent, 44 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in the three categories.
In North America, sales increased 31 percent because of higher sales volume and favorable price realization. Sales decreased in Latin America by 31 percent, driven by the impact from changes in dealer inventories and lower sales to end users. In Europe Africa and the Middle East sales increased by 8 percent. In Asia/Pacific, sales decreased 8 percent primarily because of lower sales to end users.
For the first nine months of 2023, sales and revenue totaled $49.990 billion compared to $42.830 billion during the first nine months of 2022, a 16.7-percent increase.
