Does it make sense at the current valuation to invest in $CAT or is it better to wait for a lower price?
Caterpillar shows no signs of stopping; year after year it delivers great results and its stock performance is solid. It's a cash machine and I don't see much reason why its growth should slow down significantly. The shares have been rising over the long term and major drawdowns aren't very common, so I'm thinking about buying even at the current price.
I won't give advice, but I closed my position in $CAT after a year with a fairly decent profit, because it seemed to me that the current valuation is quite high (especially given the current geopolitical situation). It's worth adding, though, that Caterpillar is no longer "just" a cyclical heavy-equipment company focused on excavators—they have a much broader scope. So we'll see whether I end up regretting it.
That price doesn't reflect the performance at all. Low margins, high debt, low EPS growth over the past year and the past five years. ROIC is so-so, but the P/E definitely isn't.
Do you like CAT at a P/E of 38 (forward P/E 26) for a cyclical business? ;)