Caterpillar (CAT) Competitors

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and valuation.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, DE or CAT?

Caterpillar has higher revenue and earnings than Deere & Company. Deere & Company is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Caterpillar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Deere & Company	$54.85B	2.02	$10.17B	$29.31	13.82
Caterpillar	$65.66B	2.80	$10.34B	$21.57	17.68

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in DE or CAT?

Caterpillar received 42 more outperform votes than Deere & Company when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.94% of users gave Deere & Company an outperform vote while only 62.36% of users gave Caterpillar an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Deere & Company	Outperform Votes 1154 64.94%	Underperform Votes 623 35.06%
Caterpillar	Outperform Votes 1196 62.36%	Underperform Votes 722 37.64%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in DE or CAT?

68.6% of Deere & Company shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.0% of Caterpillar shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Deere & Company shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Caterpillar shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend DE or CAT?

Deere & Company presently has a consensus price target of $420.69, indicating a potential upside of 3.85%. Caterpillar has a consensus price target of $365.33, indicating a potential downside of 4.22%. Given Deere & Company's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Deere & Company is more favorable than Caterpillar.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Deere & Company	0 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
Caterpillar	4 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.12

Which has more volatility and risk, DE or CAT?

Deere & Company has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Caterpillar has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is DE or CAT a better dividend stock?

Deere & Company pays an annual dividend of $5.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Caterpillar pays an annual dividend of $5.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Deere & Company pays out 20.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Caterpillar pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Caterpillar has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Caterpillar is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to DE or CAT?

In the previous week, Caterpillar had 8 more articles in the media than Deere & Company. MarketBeat recorded 54 mentions for Caterpillar and 46 mentions for Deere & Company. Deere & Company's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat Caterpillar's score of 0.89 indicating that Deere & Company is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Deere & Company	35 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Caterpillar	37 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is DE or CAT more profitable?

Caterpillar has a net margin of 16.26% compared to Deere & Company's net margin of 14.69%. Caterpillar's return on equity of 59.09% beat Deere & Company's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Deere & Company	14.69%	36.71%	7.85%
Caterpillar	16.26%	59.09%	12.77%

Summary

Caterpillar beats Deere & Company on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.