DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Caterpillar Inc.'s (CAT) first-quarter profit soared to a record-setting level as sales surged across all types of machinery and power systems and margins grew. Shares rose 2.1% to $115.01 in recent premarket trading as the results handily topped Wall Street's views and the company boosted its current-year earnings forecast to $6.25 to $6.75 a share from its previous prediction of approximately $6. It forecast revenue of $52 billion to $54 billion, compared with its previous expectation of the top line exceeding $50 billion. The increased guidance was tempered by last month's earthquake in Japan, which has impacted many of the company's suppliers. Caterpillar said it expects the disaster to cuts its current-year sales by about $300 million and operating profit by $100 million. The world's largest construction equipment manufacturer by sales has continued to report improving financial performance amid ongoing evidence of recovery in the sector. Last month it said it will spend $5 billion by 2015 to increase production capacity because of prolonged global demand for construction machinery. In November, Caterpillar agreed to acquire mining-equipment maker Bucyrus International Inc. (BUCY) for $7.6 billion, the largest acquisition in its history. Caterpillar reported a profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.84 a share, up from $233 million, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 57% to $12.95 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast a profit of $1.31 on $11.69 billion in revenue. Gross margin widened to 30.1% from 28.5%. Construction industries revenue, the largest top-line contributor, jumped 71% while power systems sales were up 51%. -By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com
