Dow Today: Walt Disney (DIS) Leads The Day Higher, Caterpillar (CAT) Lags

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading up 15 points (+0.1%) at 12,830 as of Monday, Nov 12, 2012, 9:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 22.1 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 589 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,552 issues advancing vs. 996 declining with 192 unchanged.

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The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), which is sporting a 27-cent gain (+0.6%) bringing the stock to $47.33. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 2.04 points or roughly accounting for 13.6% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Walt Disney currently sits at 1.3 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 7.9 million shares.

Walt Disney has a market cap of $89.79 billion and is part of the services sector and media industry. Shares are up 33.4% year to date as of Friday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.2%.

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an entertainment company worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 16, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Walt Disney as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, revenue growth, notable return on equity and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.

• You can view the full Walt Disney Ratings Report.

Holding back the Dow today is Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 68-cent decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $84.27. Volume for Caterpillar currently sits at 368,689 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 7.3 million shares.

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Caterpillar has a market cap of $54.71 billion and is part of the conglomerates sector and conglomerates industry. Shares are down 7.7% year to date as of Friday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.5%.

Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 8.6, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Caterpillar as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, notable return on equity, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

• You can view the full Caterpillar Ratings Report.

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