Traders will be waiting to see if the company meets or beats earnings expectations after the next release. Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE:CAT) is scheduled to next post quarterly results on or around 2016-04-22. The firm most recently announced earnings of $0.74 against the Zack’s Research consensus estimate of $0.69 for the quarter that ended on 2016-03-31. This actual result marked a surprise factor of 7.25%, a difference of $0.05. A large surprise factor may signal significant swings in the stock price immediately after an earnings release, or in the following days and weeks. As the earnings report date approaches, analysts may update their models based on Street sentiment and company announcements. These have the ability be key indicators pointing to whether results will meat or beat consensus expectations.

Mixing in past earnings trends, future earnings predictions and company issued and projected guidance, many sell-side analysts will also project future price target numbers for the stocks they are monitoring. These reports are sent to institutions to help assist in making investment decisions. These numbers are also available to retail investors through different platforms. At the time of writing, the consensus price target (1 year) on shares of Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE:CAT) sits at $64.6. This is based on 10 sell-side analysts tracked by Zacks Research. The analyst with the most favorable outlook has the stock moving to $73, while the most conservative analyst has a target of $52 on shares.

Looking at recommendations, 0 analysts have rated the stock a Strong Buy, 0 have given it a Buy rating, 10 a Hold and 0 a Sell. All of these recommendations can be translated into an numerical scale from 1 to 5 to arrive at an average broker rating. A low number (1-2) indicates a consensus Buy, a middle number (2.5-3.5) indicates a Hold and any number over 4 would indicate a consensus Sell rating. At the time of writing Caterpillar, Inc. shares have a consensus rating of 3.18.

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by April 11, 2016