Caterpillar or United Technologies

United Technologies Corporation and Caterpillar Inc. are both world-renowned U.S. industrial companies with significant exposure to the construction industry. And it's right about there that the comparisons stop. Although President-elect Donald Trump's victory saw both companies' stock price jump on enthusiasm of favorable industrial conditions to come, the key drivers of the stock price of each company are significantly different. Here's a look at what investors need to know before buying either stock.

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Best Manufacturing Stocks to Buy

Investors have watched the biggest publicly traded U.S. manufacturing stocks notably outperform the S&P 500 index so far in 2016. This comes as industrial production growth remains negative and indices of manufacturing sentiment continue to be subdued. Clearly, the market believes there could be some sort of recovery coming. What's going on, and which are the best manufacturing stocks to buy?

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AgroFresh Solutions Earnings Review

AgroFresh Solutions, Inc.  CEO Jordi Ferre can be excused any apprehension before his first earnings call Wednesday as the head of the agricultural products company. The third-quarter results contained almost a full house of disappointments, from weaker-than-expected end markets to increased competitive pressures to failure to hit management's sales targets. Let's take a look at the results from a difficult quarter.

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General Electric Company Cuts Guidance

General Electric Company reduced its full-year 2016 revenue outlook. Does that mean investors should sell the stock? The reduction, which the company announced while providing third-quarter results on Oct 21, has since been overshadowed by the announcement of an agreement to merge its oil & gas operations with Baker Hughes Incorporated . However,the two actions should be thought about jointly when considering what you should do with the stock. Here's what you need to know:

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Honeywell International is a Stock to Buy

Honeywell International Inc. hasn't had a recent history of disappointing investors, so the recent guidance cuts must have come as something of a surprise. Whenever a company reduces estimates, there's a reduction in confidence and holders looking to exit the stock, but I happen to think it's created a buying opportunity in the stock, and here's why.

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Jones Lang LaSalle Earnings Review

Commercial property services company Jones Lang LaSalle's third-quarter results contained many moving parts. I will go into more details below but, in summary, the company demonstrated an ability to outperform a weakening market, although margins declined. Meanwhile, management's outlook for 2017 suggests better days ahead. Heres a closer look at the results and what management said about the future.

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Emerson Electric Earnings Review

Most companies with heavy exposure to the oil and gas industry have had a difficult year in 2016, and Emerson Electric Co. is no different. The recent fourth-quarter results revealed yet more sales and order declines, but CEO David Farr has been busy restructuring in order to position Emerson Electric for future growth. It's time to analyze the results and outlook from the company's latest earnings report.

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MSC Industrial Direct Earnings Review

Industrial-supply companies like MSC Industrial Direct are always interesting for investors because they provide an early indication of trends in industrial market conditions. However, anyone hoping for a definitive sign of a pickup from its fourth-quarter earnings would have been disappointed. The company's earnings continue to be characterized by declining end markets, but there are some slightly positive signs, not least from the initiatives management is taking to improve competitive positioning. Let's analyze the earnings and outlook in more detail.

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Cognex Corporation Earnings Review

For the fourth quarter in a row, machine-vision company Cognex Corporation's  revenue growth exceeded management's expectations. In a nutshell, Cognex is seeing stronger growth in consumer electronics than originally expected at the start of the year. It all adds up to a strong year for the company, during which management has managed to outperform a struggling industrial automation market while expanding the Total Addressable Market (TAM) of its machine-vision solutions. For a closer look, let's take a closer look at the third-quarter results.

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Roper Technologies Earnings Review

It's been a tricky year operationally for Roper Technologies, Inc. A  combination of weaker-than-expected oil and gas capital spending trends, weakening industrial production growth, and delays in a toll road project in Saudi Arabia have reduced earnings expectations. There is little management can do about these issues, but where it can make a difference, it has executed well. The latest third-quarter results revealed some pretty strong margin performance and cash flow generation alongside an interesting acquisition. Let's take a closer look at an eventful quarter.

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Check Point Software Technologies Earnings Review

Following Fortinet's pre-announcement on Oct. 11 that it would miss management's revenue forecast, investors in Check Point Software Technologies Ltd had a right to fear the worst from their company's third-quarter earnings, which were reported Oct. 31. In the end, Check Point's revenue came in at the top end of guidance and earnings per share were ahead of the estimate, with CEO Gil Shwed claiming he hadn't seen any of the kind of lengthening in the sales cycle that Fortinet's management spoke of.

Let's take a look at the earnings report.

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BorgWarner Inc. Earnings Review

It's been a strange year for powertrain engineering company BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA). Following the lowering of its 2016 through 2018 growth outlook at a conference in January, the company has pretty much executed according to plan, but its stock is still down significantly on the year. In truth, the stock price movements of automobile suppliers are always going to be subject to sentiment on future production growth. In this vein, let's take a look at BorgWarner's third-quarter results and guidance for the auto industry.

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United Parcel Service, Inc Earnings Analysis

Many of the themes from FedEx's  latest results played out in United Parcel Service, Inc.'s third-quarter results as well: consumer deliveries growing more than business deliveries, strong e-commerce demand, an increasing demand for certain premium services, and disappointing freight demand. Let's take a look at the earnings report and how UPS is managing it all.

United Parcel Service third-quarter results: The raw numbers

Overall revenue grew 4.9%, but a 5.2% increase in operating expenses held back operating profit growth to just 2.5% compared to the same period last year. It was pretty much in line with expectations, and management reiterated its outlook for full-year diluted EPS of $5.70 to $5.90.

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WESCO International Earnings Review

Distributing industrial supplies when U.S. industrial production is in a recession is a tough business: Just ask management at WESCO International Inc. It gets worse. Much of WESCO's end market consists of precisely the kind of industries (oil and gas, mining, heavy industries, and more) which have largely been responsible for the slowdown in the industrial sector.

However, this quarter it was the turn of its construction end markets to disappoint. What happened, and why?

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Robert Half International Earnings Review

Staffing company Robert Half International's  prospects are always going to be tied to the state of the economy, and if the company's third-quarter results and outlook are an accurate guide, then investors can expect more sluggish growth ahead. Let's take a closer look at the earnings report and see what happened in the quarter.

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Dassault Systemes Earnings Review

It's fair to say that Dassault Systemes'  most recent earnings were not well received by the investment market. The stock's 7% decline on the day of their release tells you something went wrong in the quarter. So let's take a look at the third-quarter results and find out what actually happened.

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Time to Buy Parker-Hannifan Stock?

In the universe of stocks loosely described as "diversified industrial cyclicals", Parker-Hannifin (NYSE:PH) stands out as an intriguing value proposition. In truth, it's been an odd year for the sector: Forecasts for industrial production growth in 2016 have turned negative, while oil and gas capital expenditures continue to disappoint. Case in point, General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the latest to trim full-year revenue guidance on weak oil & gas markets -- but diversified industrials have soared. Let's take a closer look at Parker-Hannifin, and consider what you need to know before deciding whether or not to buy the stock.

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Illinois Tool Works Earnings Review

Another quarter, another set of results from Illinois Tool Works characterized by good margin expansion due to the company’s enterprise initiatives. The end result is another quarter of high-single-digit EPS growth, even while organic revenue continues to grow in low single digits. Let’s take a look at the details of the quarter to see how Illinois Tool Works is managing to grow earnings ahead of its end markets.

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Illinois Tool Works Earnings Preview

It's not often a company lowers its full-year organic revenue guidance but increases its EPS guidance, but that's exactly what happened with Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) when it last gave results in July. In short, the company's stock-price performance has trumped its peers' thanks to its ability to expand margin.
Can the stock keep up its impressive run? With the earnings release coming up on Oct. 20, let's look at what the company needs to do.

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