Good news: top-line growth of 11% in second quarter sales from the same period a year earlier

Bad news: operating profit went from 13.9% a year ago to 13.6% driven by higher manufacturing costs

North American Sales were up 20%

Asia/Pacific Sales were down 17%

Hopefully, this will mean revert due to China coming out of lockdowns but at this point that might be false hope.

Energy & Transporation's profit was down 11% due to unfavorable manufacturing costs and higher SG&A/R&D expenses.

Increase sales and sales volume is great, but not when operating profit is going down. For a large company like Caterpillar, operating profit is going to be the top value driver for the stock. This isn't a growth company, this is a solid dividend stock that needs pure profit to reward its shareholders.

Keep an eye on their operating profit margin to see if it gets back on track next quarter. This is a very difficult period for an international company that needs to control costs in order to succeed.