(Reuters) -Caterpillar said on Thursday it expects sales to fall in the current quarter as demand for its construction equipment eases from last year’s boom, sending its shares down 4% in premarket trading.
Caterpillar had benefited from President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion 2021 infrastructure law to upgrade roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure that sent sales at the company surging early last year.
However, the boom from last year has eased off, and the company also forecast roughly flat sales for the year. For the first-quarter, revenue fell to $15.80 billion from $15.86 billion a year ago.
Still, the company posted a rise in quarterly profit due to higher prices, which helped it offset the impact from lingering supply chain constraints and higher steel prices.
The company’s net income rose to $2.86 billion, or $5.75 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.94 billion, or $3.74 per share, a year earlier.
It reported an adjusted per-share profit of $5.60 for the first quarter, compared with $4.91 last year.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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