AAPL vs CAT.

→The two are furthest apart on Trend, where Apple passes 5 more of the six. They score identically on 4 of the six, so the difference between them is narrower than a headline suggests.

	AAPL	CAT
Trend	6/6	1/6
Financial health	5/6	4/6
Value	0/6	0/6
Growth	4/6	4/6
Quality	6/6	6/6
Shareholder returns	6/6	6/6
All checks	27/36	21/36

→Apple turns over $466.8B to Caterpillar's $74.7B, 6.2 times as much. Apple keeps 27.6% of revenue as profit against 14.5% at Caterpillar.

→Apple carries much the lighter balance sheet, 0.77x of debt to equity against 1.87x - which matters most in the year a downturn arrives, not this one.

	AAPL	CAT
Debt / equity	0.77x	1.87x
Interest coverage	39.4x	-
Cash and short-term investments	$62.4B	$6.7B

→Caterpillar is the cheaper of the two on earnings, 35.7x against 38.7x. Against their own histories, Apple is above its 23.8x median and Caterpillar is above its 15.5x.

	AAPL	CAT
Share price	$332.27	$818.57
Market cap	$4.85T	$376.3B
P/E	38.7x	35.7x
P/E, own median own 10-year median / own 10-year median	23.8x	15.5x
P/S	10.4x	5.0x
Free cash flow yield	2.8%	2.8%

→Caterpillar grew revenue faster over the last twelve months, +18.4% against +14.2% at Apple - 4 points apart. Over three years the order is reversed: Caterpillar compounds at +4.4% against +1.8%.

	AAPL	CAT
Revenue (TTM)	$466.8B	$74.7B
Revenue growth, 1 year	+14.2%	+18.4%
Revenue CAGR, 3 years	+1.8%	+4.4%
Net income (TTM)	$128.9B	$10.8B
Free cash flow (TTM)	$136.7B	$10.7B

→Apple keeps more of each sale: operating margin of 33.2% against 17.5%, a gap of 16 points that flows into everything below it.

	AAPL	CAT
Gross margin	48.7%	-
Operating margin	33.2%	17.5%
Return on equity	119.9%	55.9%

→Both pay: Caterpillar yields the more at 0.8% against 0.3%. A yield rises when a price falls, so read it beside the payout checks in each report.

	AAPL	CAT
Dividend yield	0.3%	0.8%
Payout ratio	12.1%	25.9%
Years of unbroken dividend	-	-