Before diving into this blog post, let me make it clear that we are against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While we can’t control the outcome of this war, some MOTers have made contributions to support Ukraine. Some have even decided to donate trading profits from stocks benefiting from the turmoil. 

One stock that is on the rise due to the conflict in Ukraine is CAT. Caterpillar Inc. has a portfolio of about 20 brands offering machines, engines, components, services, and solutions to meet various industries and customers’ unique needs worldwide. Recently, Stephen Volkmann, a Jefferies analyst, upgraded CAT to Buy from Hold. His price target is $260 a share, up from $215.

He wrote, “Recent turmoil in Eastern Europe fundamentally reshapes global commodity markets, driving structurally higher pricing and after years of underinvestment capacity additions…Supply diversification will be necessary in both mining and oil and gas sectors, though new projects will take time. Cat has historically been a strong hedge to commodity and general inflation.”

You have likely noticed that commodity prices are rising. You have probably seen how expensive oil is with national gas prices over $4 per gallon. This rise bodes well for CAT. 

The current stock price for CAT is $209.28 as of 12:40 pm est on 3/9/22. This price is up from $196.65 at market close on Monday, March 7th. 

Other stocks listed as “strong buys” due to the conflict in Ukraine by Yahoo Finance are VLO, TTE, and AMCR.