Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) reported Q1 EPS of $1.84 today, crushing the consensus estimate for $1.31 per share. Revenues for the quarter were up 57% year-over-year to $12.95 billion, far above the consensus estimate for $11.69 billion.Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman said, "I am very pleased with our first-quarter results--demand continued to improve, we increased production, cost control was excellent, and our operating profit margin improved. We generated more than $1.6 billion of operating cash flow from our Machinery and Power Systems businesses, an increase of more than 50 percent, and our debt-to-capital ratio dropped more than 4 percentage points from year-end 2010."The company raised its 2011 outlook. Revenues for the year are now expected in the range of $52 to $54 billion, vs. the consensus estimate for $52.20 billion, and EPS in the range of $6.25 to $6.75, vs. the consensus estimate for $6.25 per share. Previously the company had expected sales to exceed $50 billion and profit to be near $6.00 per share.
