** Construction equipment maker Caterpillar's shares CAT.N rise 1.8% to $420 premarket
** Evercore ISI upgrades rating to "outperform" from "in line", lifts price target to $476 from $373
** Notes CAT's "recent resilience in construction equipment margins amid price-cost negativity"
** Says CAT could look to reduce current discounting further, sees EPS upside later in 2025 and into 2026
** "Given the appetite for the stock already via its power generation/data center exposure, machine upside would be a material incremental positive to broaden CAT appeal," says Evercore ISI
** Fourteen brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, 13 "hold" and 1 "sell"; their median PT is $424.06 - LSEG-compiled data
** YTD, CAT had risen 13.8%, compared with a 5.6% increase in the Dow Jones U.S. Industrials Index .DJI
(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta)
((Aatreyee.Dasgupta@thomsonreuters.com))
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