Caterpillar vs Deere (CAT vs DE)

Side by side from their SEC filings: revenue, margins, growth, returns and valuation, plus short interest, insider activity and institutional ownership.

Caterpillar is the larger company by revenue ($67.6B vs $45.7B) and market value ($335.9B vs $173.1B). Caterpillar has grown revenue faster over the last 4 fiscal years (+32.6% cumulative vs +3.8%). Caterpillar trades at the lower trailing P/E (31.5x vs 35.7x).

About Caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc manufactures construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. The company serves customers in industries such as construction, mining, oil and gas, power generation, marine, and rail through its Machinery, Power & Energy, Construction Industries, and Resource Industries segments. It also offers financing and insurance services to customers and dealers through its Financial Products segment.

About Deere

Deere & Company, commonly known as John Deere, manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment. Its main products include tractors, harvesters, cotton pickers, sugarcane harvesters, specialty and compact tractors, turf equipment, backhoe loaders, excavators, and roadbuilding machinery. The company serves production-scale crop growers, dairy and livestock producers, turf and utility customers, and construction and forestry operators, offering integrated technology solutions and financial services.

Head to head (CAT FY2025 vs DE FY2025)

Metric	CATFY2025	DEFY2025
Revenue	$67.59B	$45.68B
Revenue growth (YoY)	4.3%	-11.7%
Gross margin	33.8%	—
Operating margin	16.5%	—
Net margin	13.1%	11.0%
Net income	$8.88B	$5.03B
Diluted EPS	$18.81	$18.50
FCF margin	13.2%	13.4%
ROE	41.7%	19.4%
Long-term debt / equity	1.44×	—
Market cap	$335.91B	$173.06B
P/E	31.5×	35.7×

Fundamentals are from each company’s SEC filings (CAT FY2025, DE FY2025). ROE is net income over fiscal-year-end equity; long-term debt / equity counts non-current term debt only. P/E and market cap are derived from stored market prices, last retrieved on a rolling basis and typically within the past week.

Five-year trend (as reported)

Revenue	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
CAT	$50.97B	$59.43B	$67.06B	$64.81B	$67.59B
DE	$44.02B	$52.58B	$61.25B	$51.72B	$45.68B

Net income	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
CAT	$6.49B	$6.71B	$10.34B	$10.79B	$8.88B
DE	$5.96B	$7.13B	$10.17B	$7.10B	$5.03B

Operating margin	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
CAT	13.5%	13.3%	19.3%	20.2%	16.5%
DE	18.2%	18.1%	21.2%	17.5%	—

Peer standing

Where each company ranks among the 668 Industrials companies, on the same scale. Each figure is ranked only against peers that report it. Percentiles describe position in the distribution, not a rating.

Metric	CAT	DE
Net margin	13.1%82nd percentile of 630	11.0%78th percentile of 630
FCF margin	13.2%79th percentile of 546	13.4%80th percentile of 546
Revenue growth (YoY)	+4.3%48th percentile of 652	-11.7%12th percentile of 652
ROE	41.7%96th percentile of 590	19.4%81st percentile of 590
P/E	31.5×68th percentile of 406	35.7×78th percentile of 406
Short interest (days to cover)	3.23d49th percentile of 661	4.31d66th percentile of 661

Short interest

FINRA settlement data	CAT	DE
Shares sold short	8.0M	5.7M
Change vs prior settlement	-4.4%	+2.3%
Days to cover	3.23	4.31
As of settlement	2026-09-30	2026-09-30

Source: FINRA Consolidated Short Interest. FINRA is the owner and source of the FINRA-supplied data; republishing or redistributing it is not permitted. Not presented as a percentage of float. No FINRA endorsement of this product is implied.

Insider activity (last 90 days)

Form 4 activity (codes P/S)	CAT	DE
Buys	0	0
Sells	14 ($26.2M)	21 ($23.4M)

Non-derivative purchases (code P) and sales (code S) reported on SEC Form 4, which may be open-market or private (grants, exercises and tax withholding excluded). For context, about 15% of covered companies saw any reported insider purchase (code P) in a 90-day window.

Held by the same investors

12 tracked 13F managers hold both Caterpillar and Deere as of their latest quarterly filings: AQR Capital Management, ARK Investment Management, Bridgewater Associates, Citadel Advisors, D. E. Shaw, Dodge & Cox, Gates Foundation Trust, Gotham Asset Management, Harris Associates (Oakmark), Markel Group, Millennium Management, Two Sigma Investments. See which superinvestors hold your own portfolio with the smart money checker.

Go deeper

CATERPILLAR INC (CAT)

Full statements, filings, ownership and peer ranks →

DEERE & CO (DE)

Full statements, filings, ownership and peer ranks →

Track CAT and DE

Get an alert when either company files something material, see which superinvestors own them, and ask their filings a question with cited answers.

Start monitoring free

Includes one free filing-grounded research answer. Or check your whole portfolio, no account needed.

Data sourced from SEC EDGAR. Figures are as-reported and may be unaudited or restated; verify against the source filings before relying on them. Comparisons are descriptive (higher or lower on a reported figure), not a rating or a recommendation. Informational only. Not investment advice.