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Caterpillar's (NYSE:CAT) investors will be pleased with their splendid 221% return over the last five years

Simply Wall St·08/19/2025 11:14:34
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The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. Long term Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) shareholders would be well aware of this, since the stock is up 191% in five years. On top of that, the share price is up 18% in about a quarter. But this move may well have been assisted by the reasonably buoyant market (up 8.8% in 90 days).

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Over half a decade, Caterpillar managed to grow its earnings per share at 22% a year. So the EPS growth rate is rather close to the annualized share price gain of 24% per year. Therefore one could conclude that sentiment towards the shares hasn't morphed very much. Rather, the share price has approximately tracked EPS growth.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

earnings-per-share-growth
NYSE:CAT Earnings Per Share Growth August 19th 2025

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Caterpillar's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of Caterpillar, it has a TSR of 221% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Caterpillar has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 22% in the last twelve months. That's including the dividend. However, the TSR over five years, coming in at 26% per year, is even more impressive. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Caterpillar better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Caterpillar is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Caterpillar is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find lesser know companies this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

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