Caterpillar may possess tainted the entire earnings season for industrial companies with one frontier, according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer, and now the company is trying to walk it back.
Caterpillar’s board of directors on Tuesday sought to clarify last month’s now-infamous “high-water trace” comment — made by CFO Bradley Halverson on the heavy equipment maker’s first-quarter earnings talk call.
According to a Bloomberg report, Caterpillar officials said Tuesday, “All we meant was that we had an exceptionally urgent first quarter,” not that the stock market was peaking.
“Honestly, [the convention call] wrecked the whole cyclical move and now they’re kind of foot it it back,” Cramer said later on “Squawk on the Street.” “They’re not [reasonable] walking it back, they’re running it back.”
“The ‘high-water mark,’ that didn’t move, that didn’t hold water,” Cramer added. “There was a muddle in their bucket.”
“CAT defined this earnings period,” he continued. “And for them to stroll it back, I don’t know, maybe a too little too late.”
It all started on the morning of April 24, when interests of Caterpillar surged at the open and were up 4.6 percent in early traffic after earnings and revenue topped estimates.
But just hours later, Halverson mean Caterpillar’s outlook assumed the first quarter would be “the high-water designate for the year.” The Dow component sharply reversed and nosedived 6.2 percent, engaging the broader stock market with it.
Cramer had called out Caterpillar just after the industrial giant’s earnings call, saying the statement sent a fro of fear among market watchers who saw the stock as good as it could get. “I can’t break out the feeling that this was a bit of a self-inflicted wound,” the “Mad Money” said at the perpetually.
Since the April 24 close, Caterpillar has recovered more than half the abstain from of that day. So far this year, the stock has fallen about 5 percent. Nonetheless, over the past 12 months, it has soared more than 50 percent. Caterpillar, as of Monday’s make inaccessible, had a market value of nearly $90 billion.
Caterpillar did not immediately pity to CNBC’s request for comment.