Question 1

Which is bigger, CAT or IEX?

Accepted Answer

Caterpillar Inc. is the larger company — market cap $368B vs $17.4B for IDEX Corporation.

Question 2

Which is more profitable, CAT or IEX?

Accepted Answer

CAT keeps more of each revenue dollar as profit — net margin 14.5% vs 14.5% for IEX.

Question 3

Which stock is cheaper, CAT or IEX?

Accepted Answer

On earnings, IEX trades at a lower P/E — 33.2 vs 33.9 for CAT. A lower P/E means paying less per dollar of earnings.

Question 4

Which pays a higher dividend, CAT or IEX?

Accepted Answer

IEX yields 1.24% vs 0.76% for CAT.

Question 5

Which is the better stock — CAT or IEX?

Accepted Answer

On reported financials, CAT leads 7 of 12 comparable metrics and IEX leads 5. StockCV rates CAT “Solid” and IEX “Strong”. This is information, not investment advice — compare the full CVs before drawing conclusions.

Metric	CAT	IEX
Price	$800.56	$235.77
Market cap	$368B	$17.4B
Revenue (TTM)	$74.7B	$3.59B
Revenue growth	+4.4%	+2.8%
Net margin	14.5%	14.5%
Free cash flow	$10.7B	$642M
Net cash (debt)	($26.2B)	($1.24B)
1-year price return	+62.9%	+46.3%
P/E	33.9	33.2
P/E vs own history (cheap-side %)	13%	13%
Dividend yield	0.76%	1.24%
Return on equity	54%	13%
Altman Z-score	5.12	5.60
CV checks passed	11 of 11	10 of 11
Employees	118,000	8,700

Caterpillar Inc. vs IDEX Corporation