Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) investors will be delighted, with the company turning in some strong numbers with its latest results. It was overall a positive result, with revenues beating expectations by 5.9% to hit US$17b. Caterpillar reported statutory earnings per share (EPS) US$5.47, which was a notable 20% above what the analysts had forecast. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. With this in mind, we've gathered the latest statutory forecasts to see what the analysts are expecting for next year.

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Caterpillar's 19 analysts is for revenues of US$75.8b in 2026. This would reflect a satisfactory 7.1% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to ascend 17% to US$23.99. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$73.8b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$22.64 in 2026. So there seems to have been a moderate uplift in sentiment following the latest results, given the upgrades to both revenue and earnings per share forecasts for next year.

With these upgrades, we're not surprised to see that the analysts have lifted their price target 13% to US$866per share. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. There are some variant perceptions on Caterpillar, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$1,165 and the most bearish at US$575 per share. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Caterpillar's past performance and to peers in the same industry. It's clear from the latest estimates that Caterpillar's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 9.6% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2026 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 7.6% p.a. over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 6.1% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Caterpillar to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that the analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, suggesting that there has been a clear increase in optimism towards Caterpillar following these results. Happily, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting them to grow faster than the wider industry. We note an upgrade to the price target, suggesting that the analysts believes the intrinsic value of the business is likely to improve over time.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have forecasts for Caterpillar going out to 2028, and you can see them free on our platform here.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.