Komatsu slashes earnings forecast
Komatsu, which competes with the world’s No.1 Caterpillar Inc., said it now saw an operating profit of 200 billion yen ($2.3 billion) for the year to March 2009, down from its previous profit estimate of 300 billion yen.
That would be down 40 percent from the previous year and lag the consensus estimate in a poll of 16 analysts by Reuters Estimates of 273.7 billion yen.
“This is not good for its stock price,” Hidehiko Hoshino, an analyst at UBS, said.
“The market will focus on a possible sharp deterioration in profit in the next business year and a lack of visibility in its earnings environment.”
This is the main reason Caterpillar’s stock got beat up at the open, though you have to ask yourself: with Cat in the same boat as everyone else and earnings to be announced before the bell Monday, would you want to be holding Cat over the weekend?
(Of course all wise investors tune out day-to-day ticks, but what fun is being wise?)