COVID-19 Sends Caterpillar's Retail Machine Sales Tumbling for the 9th Straight Month
Global economies may be reopening after COVID-19-triggered lockdowns, but the pandemic isn't offering Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) any respite yet. Each month, Caterpillar releases statistics for its global retail machinery sales for the previous three-month rolling period to offer insight into the company's performance on an ongoing basis. The industrial conglomerate's latest sales numbers for the three months ended in August show no improvement over its July-ending period.
In fact, a key geographic region that had showed promise reported lackluster results, and that's exactly why Caterpillar's latest sales figures mark the ninth straight month of declines. For the three months ended in August, the company's worldwide machinery sales dropped 20% versus the year-ago period. Its July-ending sales fell just as much, but there's a difference.
Here's what Caterpillar's latest report looks like, broken down by segment and geographic region. Note that the "total" includes sales from Caterpillar's third segment, energy and transportation.
Source Fool.com
