Caterpillar 4th-quarter profit up on international sales

PEORIA -- Caterpillar Inc., one of the world's largest construction equipment makers, said Friday its fourth-quarter earnings rose 11 percent on strong international growth.

The company earned $975 million, or $1.50 per share, compared with $882 million, or $1.32 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $12.14 billion from $11 billion in the prior-year period.

Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.50 per share on revenue of $11.79 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

The company said strong economic growth outside the United States, particularly in the mining, energy and infrastructure segments, offset weakness in the domestic market.

The company said it still expects to grow profit by 5 percent to 15 percent in 2008, and sees revenue rising 5 percent to 10 percent year-over-year. The prediction implies 2008 profit of $5.64 to $6.18 per share on revenue of $44.06 billion to $46.16 billion.

"While we expect anemic growth in the U.S. economy, we continue to see positive conditions for our sales in most of the rest of the world," the company said in a statement.

Analysts were expecting a profit of $5.98 per share on revenue of $47.8 billion.