Caterpillar’s 1Q Profit Tops $1.2 Billion

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said Friday its first-quarter profit more than quintupled on higher sales, and its boosted its full-year earnings outlook.

Net income jumped to $1.23 billion, or $1.84 a share, from $233 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier, Caterpillar said in a statement. Sales rose 57% to $12.9 billion from $8.24 billion.

The company introduced the CT660, the first in a line of Caterpillar-branded vocational on-highway truck models, at a trade show in Las Vegas last month.

Caterpillar, the largest maker of earth-moving equipment also boosted its full-year earnings outlook to a range of $6.25 to $6.75 per share, from its prior forecast of “near $6” per share.

Caterpillar, which formerly made diesel truck engines, said in 2008 it was pulling out of the North American Class 8 truck engine market except for a truck and engine in partnership with Navistar International Corp.