Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)

Valuation as at 2026-09-25

About Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc. provides construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives in the United States and internationally. The Construction Industries segment offers asphalt pavers, cold planers, compactors, forestry machines, material handlers, motor graders, pipelayers, road reclaimers, telehandlers, track-type tractors, and track and wheel excavators; backhoe, compact track, skid steer, track-type, and wheel loaders; and related parts and work tools.

Source: Yahoo Finance company profile · factual description, not KashVector commentary

Caterpillar Inc. CAT

Industrials · Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery

Price
$805.25
Market Cap
$370.15B
Free Cash Flow
$5.05B
Revenue (TTM)
$74.73B
Revenue Growth
24.0%
Gross Margin
29.7%
Net Debt
$39.20B
52-Week Range
$459.58–$1073.46

What does the current price assume?

At the current price, the market appears to be pricing in about 50.0% initial revenue growth — steep enough that the model's own free cash flow would dip before recovering by year 7, even though Caterpillar Inc.'s actual free cash flow is already positive.

Caterpillar Inc.'s trailing free cash flow is $5.05B on 24.0% current revenue growth today. The model's reinvestment charge scales with the assumed growth rate, not the company's actual current pace — funding 50.0% growth takes substantially more reinvestment than the business is really making right now, which is what pushes the modeled figure negative before it recovers.

Caterpillar Inc.'s price & financial trends

Data as at 2026-09-25

Share price · last 2 years

$805.25 +106% vs 2024-09
S&P 500 $391.12$343.95$438.02$572.87$875.87$805.25 2024-092025-022025-072025-122026-052026-09

Revenue Per year

$67.59B +14% vs FY22
$59.43B$67.06B$64.81B$67.59BFY22FY23FY24FY25

Free cash flow Per quarter

$3.26B +50% vs Q2 '25
$2.17B$2.67B$2.25B$819.0M$3.26BQ2 '25Q3 '25Q4 '25Q1 '26Q2 '26

Operating margin trajectory Per year

16.5% +11% vs FY22
14.9%19.3%20.2%16.5%FY22FY23FY24FY25

Growth Score

Good Fit3 of 5 criteria passed
Rule of 40 (Growth % + FCF Margin % >= 40)30.8%
Revenue Growth > 20%24.0%
Gross Margin > 50%29.7%
Cash Runway > 24 MonthsSkipped
Operating Margin Trajectory Improving14.9% -> 16.5%
Dilution (Diluted Shares Growth) <= 10%/yr-3.5%

Value investing scale · Buffett · Dalio · Graham

Partial Fit
10 / 20 combined score

See the full Buffett, Dalio & Graham breakdown for CAT →

AI Sector Correlation

AI sector (AIQ) 0.40 High

Strong co-movement with the AI sector, beyond what broad-market exposure explains.

How it's calculated →

AI hardware (semiconductors, SMH) 0.62 High

Moves closely with semiconductor stocks, the hardware side of the AI boom, beyond what broad-market exposure explains.

How it's calculated →

The two models, in detail

Each shown with what it says the company is worth today and what growth the current price already implies — not just a single point estimate.

Multi-Stage DCF

$346.56
-57.0% margin of safety
Deeply Overvalued

EV / Sales

$239.86
-70.2% margin of safety
Deeply Overvalued
Implied EV/Sales at the current price: 5.48x (vs. today's reported 5.48x)

These numbers come from running Caterpillar Inc.'s revenue and margin trajectory through the Multi-Stage DCF and EV/Sales formulas above — not from any view on the news, management, or CAT's competitive position. What is a multi-stage DCF?

Want to test your own growth, margin, or discount-rate assumptions?Open the full interactive calculator, pre-filled with CAT →

Not financial advice. Multi-Stage DCF and EV/Sales valuations are highly sensitive to assumptions — small changes in growth rate, target margin, or discount rate produce large swings in output. This is a mechanical calculation, not a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell.

About this valuation

Computed on 2026-09-25 from Yahoo Finance data, using the same engine as the full Growth Stock Evaluator. Every figure above is a point-in-time snapshot of that date — change any assumption yourself in the interactive tool for a live one.

Frequently asked questions

Is Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) undervalued?

The Multi-Stage DCF estimates intrinsic value at $346.56 vs a price of $805.25 on 2026-09-25. This is a mechanical output from a model with genuine assumptions built in (target margin, growth fade, reinvestment) — not advice.

What does "implied growth rate" mean?

It's the reverse question: instead of assuming a growth rate and computing a value, this holds every other assumption fixed and asks what initial revenue growth rate would make the model's value equal to today's actual price. It tells you what the market is already betting on, which you can then judge for plausibility yourself.

What is "AI Sector Correlation"?

A measure of how closely this stock's daily price movements have tracked the AI sector over the trailing 12 months, after removing the effect of general stock-market movement. It is shown against two benchmarks: a broad AI-themed ETF (AIQ) and a semiconductor ETF (SMH), the hardware side of the AI boom. It answers "does this stock move with AI-sector sentiment specifically, beyond just moving with the market overall?" — not whether the company's revenue comes from AI.

How is it calculated?

We compute daily returns for the stock, the two AI ETFs (AIQ and SMH), and an equal-weight broad-market ETF over the trailing year, then calculate the partial correlation between the stock and each AI ETF while statistically controlling for the broad-market ETF. This isolates AI-specific co-movement from ordinary market-wide moves — a stock correlated with the market generally (which most large stocks are) doesn't automatically score as AI-correlated. See the full glossary entry for the formula and its limits.

What does "Inverse" mean?

A reading of -0.20 or lower. After removing general market movement, the stock has tended to rise when the AI sector (or semiconductor stocks) fall, and fall when they rise. It is a strong link, just in the opposite direction, which is why it is coloured red like High. It describes past price behaviour, not a prediction.

What is the "AI hardware" reading, and why show two numbers?

The broad AI ETF mixes hardware, cloud and software companies, so a stock can look unrelated to it while moving strongly with, or against, semiconductor stocks. For example, some large software companies have shown a near-zero reading against the broad AI ETF but a clearly negative one against semiconductors. Showing both lets you see either pattern. See the AI Hardware Correlation guide for how the semiconductor reading works.

What do the colours mean?

The colour shows how strongly the stock's price has been tied to the AI sector, in either direction. It is not a good or bad rating. Red means a strong link: High (moves with the AI sector) or Inverse (moves against it). Amber is Moderate, green is Low, and cyan means no meaningful link (None). Red is not a quality or valuation warning.

Does a high score mean I should buy this stock?

No. This is a descriptive statistic about historical price co-movement, not a valuation judgment or a recommendation. A stock can show high AI correlation and still be overvalued, and a stock with no AI correlation can still be a sound investment for other reasons. Use it alongside the growth score and valuation above, not in place of them.

Why might a genuinely AI-linked company still show "None"?

Correlation measures how the market has priced the stock recently, not the company's actual business exposure. A company can have a real AI-infrastructure story (for example, supplying power or components to data centres) without the market yet trading its shares in sync with AI-sector sentiment — the underlying business case and the price pattern are two different things.

Why do some international stocks score lower than expected?

Stocks listed outside the US (for example on the ASX or KRX) trade on a different calendar to the US-listed AI ETFs used for this comparison, so there are fewer directly overlapping trading days to compare. This can understate the correlation for otherwise AI-linked international companies — a known limitation of the method, not a judgment about the company.