NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 23, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Caterpillar Inc.'s (A/Stable/A-1) second-quarter 2015 results and the company's announcement of its intention to buy back $1.5 billion of its common stock in the third quarter signals to us that it has a sufficient cushion in its balance sheet to absorb the weakness in its end markets while returning cash to its shareholders. Under our forecast, we now expect Caterpillar's sales to contract by about 12% and its margins to decline by two percentage points supported by management's cost-cutting efforts. Even with the recently announced share buyback plan, the company's credit measures should remain well within our expectations for the rating (that is a funds
