Caterpillar announced Q3/14 sales and revenues were $13.549 billion, up from $13.423 billion in Q3/13.

“We’re pleased with the third-quarter profit improvement considering world economic growth remains slower than we’d like. We’ve continued to focus on what we can control — cost management and operational execution. We continue on a Lean manufacturing journey and are focused on improving safety, quality, efficiency and inventory turns. We’re making progress and it is beginning to be reflected in our results. The diversity of the businesses we’re in and the strengthening of our operational performance have been key to helping us improve results and our competitive position in this weak economic recovery. Our broad geographic reach and manufacturing footprint help mitigate the impact of currency fluctuations. In fact, currency impacts were positive in the third quarter,” said Caterpillar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman.

“In addition to the profit improvement, we have a strong balance sheet and through the first nine months of the year, we’ve had good cash flow. So far this year, we’ve returned value to our stockholders by repurchasing $4.2 billion of Caterpillar stock and raising our quarterly dividend by 17 percent,” Oberhelman said.

The company now expects 2014 sales and revenues to be about $55 billion, the middle of the previous outlook range of $54 to $56 billion. While the mid-point of the sales and revenues outlook range has not changed, profit per share expectations for 2014 continue to improve.

“At this point, our view of 2015 sales and revenues isn’t significantly different than 2014. Our order backlog was up a little in the third quarter and was slightly higher than at this point last year. We’re hopeful that economic growth will improve in 2015, but are mindful of the uncertainties and risks.

To read the full Caterpillar release, click here.