As of today (2020-07-15), Caterpillar's weighted average cost of capital is 4.59%. Caterpillar's ROIC % is 9.52% (calculated using TTM income statement data).
Caterpillar generates higher returns on investment than it costs the company to raise the capital needed for that investment. It is earning excess returns. A firm that expects to continue generating positive excess returns on new investments in the future will see its value increase as growth increases.
Caterpillar WACC % Historical Data
* All numbers are in millions except for per share data and ratio. All numbers are in their local exchange's currency.
* Premium members only.
Caterpillar Annual Data
Dec10
Dec11
Dec12
Dec13
Dec14
Dec15
Dec16
Dec17
Dec18
Dec19
WACC %
5.09
7.07
8.78
8.19
7.79
Caterpillar Quarterly Data
Jun15
Sep15
Dec15
Mar16
Jun16
Sep16
Dec16
Mar17
Jun17
Sep17
Dec17
Mar18
Jun18
Sep18
Dec18
Mar19
Jun19
Sep19
Dec19
Mar20
WACC %
7.33
7.70
7.41
7.79
5.51
Competitive Comparison
* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap.
Caterpillar WACC % Distribution
* The bar in red indicates where Caterpillar's WACC % falls into.
Caterpillar WACC % Calculation
The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. The WACC is commonly referred to as the firm's cost of capital. Generally speaking, a company's assets are financed by debt and equity. WACC is the average of the costs of these sources of financing, each of which is weighted by its respective use in the given situation. By taking a weighted average, we can see how much interest the company has to pay for every dollar it finances.
WACC
=
E
/
(E + D)
*
Cost of Equity
+
D
/
(E + D)
*
Cost of Debt
*
(1 - Tax Rate)
1. Weights:
Generally speaking, a company's assets are financed by debt and equity. We need to calculate the weight of equity and the weight of debt.
The market value of equity (E) is also called "Market Cap". As of today, Caterpillar's market capitalization (E) is $74084.837 Mil.
The market value of debt is typically difficult to calculate, therefore, GuruFocus uses book value of debt (D) to do the calculation. It is simplified by adding the latest two-year average Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation and Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation together. As of Mar. 2020, Caterpillar's latest two-year average Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was $11464.5 Mil and its latest two-year average Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was $25640.5 Mil. The total Book Value of Debt (D) is $37105 Mil.
a) weight of equity = E / (E + D) = 74084.837 / (74084.837 + 37105) = 0.6663
b) weight of debt = D / (E + D) = 37105 / (74084.837} + 37105) = 0.3337
2. Cost of Equity:
GuruFocus uses Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to calculate the required rate of return. The formula is:
Cost of Equity = Risk-Free Rate of Return + Beta of Asset * (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return)
a) GuruFocus uses 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate as the risk-free rate. It is updated daily. The current risk-free rate is 0.63000000%. Please go to Economic Indicators page for more information.
b) Beta is the sensitivity of the expected excess asset returns to the expected excess market returns. Caterpillar's beta is 0.97.
c) (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return) is also called market premium. GuruFocus requires market premium to be 6%.
Cost of Equity = 0.63000000% + 0.97 * 6% = 6.45%
3. Cost of Debt:
GuruFocus uses last fiscal year end Interest Expense divided by the latest two-year average debt to get the simplified cost of debt.
As of Dec. 2019, Caterpillar's interest expense (positive number) was $421 Mil. Its total Book Value of Debt (D) is $37105 Mil.
Cost of Debt = 421 / 37105 = 1.1346%.
4. Multiply by one minus Average Tax Rate:
GuruFocus uses the latest two-year average tax rate to do the calculation.
The latest Two-year Average Tax Rate is22.03%.
Caterpillar's Weighted Average Cost Of Capital (WACC) for Today is calculated as:
WACC
=
E / (E + D)
*
Cost of Equity
+
D / (E + D)
*
Cost of Debt
*
(1 - Tax Rate)
=
0.6663
*
6.45%
+
0.3337
*
1.1346%
*
(1 - 22.03%)
=
4.59%
* All numbers are in millions except for per share data and ratio. All numbers are in their local exchange's currency.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) WACC % Explanation
Because it costs money to raise capital. A firm that generates higher ROIC % than it costs the company to raise the capital needed for that investment is earning excess returns. A firm that expects to continue generating positive excess returns on new investments in the future will see its value increase as growth increases, whereas a firm that earns returns that do not match up to its cost of capital will destroy value as it grows.
As of today, Caterpillar's weighted average cost of capital is 4.59%. Caterpillar's ROIC % is 9.52% (calculated using TTM income statement data).
Caterpillar generates higher returns on investment than it costs the company to raise the capital needed for that investment. It is earning excess returns. A firm that expects to continue generating positive excess returns on new investments in the future will see its value increase as growth increases.
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