Caterpillar (CAT) Q2 2026: EPS +68%, Backlog Hits $44.1B
Most of Caterpillar's 50% operating profit jump is real, but not all of it. Operating profit reached $4,295 million on revenue of $20,543 million, an operating margin of 20.9% that tops the 20.2% peak set in FY2024 and sits far above the 14.5% the company averaged across the last ten years. Inside that number is a $392 million tariff refund credited to cost of goods sold after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs in February 2026 — strip it out and margin is 19.0%, still a strong result but a different one. For a machinery cycle that bottomed at a 3.0% operating margin in 2016, the question now is not whether the recovery is real but how much room is left above it.
