$CAT $CMI $DE
To compare apples to apples, we have to strip out CAT's Power & Energy business , the gas turbines, large reciprocating engines, and generator sets that serve data centers. In Q3 alone that segment was
$8.78B in sales, up 18%, with
$2.14B in profit at a 24.4% margin, including Power Generation sales up 30%.
What's left still beats
$DE comparable business:
$CAT Construction Industries did
$7.98B, at a 22.9% margin, and Resource Industries did
$4.62 at 13.5% , against Deere's Production & Precision Ag at
$4.00B, down 6%, at 13.2%, Small Ag & Turf at
$3.38B, up 12%, at 18.4%, and Construction & Forestry at
$3.62B, up 18%, at 12.1%. At
$553.64, CAT trades at ~3.27x sales and ~19x forward earnings, versus Deere at ~3.77x sales and ~29–32x forward earnings, with higher profitability and a record
$78B backlog behind it. On the businesses that actually compare, CAT is the better buy , and the Power & Energy segment you stripped out is the icing on the cake.
