Caterpillar's first-quarter adjusted profit met Wall Street's view, even as sales declined across various categories while it continues to deal with soft product demand. The mining and construction equipment company lowered its full-year profit forecast.

For the three months ended March 31, Caterpillar earned $US271 million ($A350.24 million), or 46 cents per share. A year earlier the company earned $US1.25 billion, or $US2.03 per share.

Removing restructuring costs, earnings were 67 cents per share. This met the expectations of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue fell to $US9.46 billion from $US12.7 billion.

Caterpillar Inc said on Friday that it foresees a full-year adjusted profit of $US3.70 per share, down from its prior outlook of $4 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $US3.62 per share.

The company now anticipates 2016 sales and revenues in a range of $US40 billion to $US42 billion. Its previous guidance was for sales and revenues between $US40 billion and $US44 billion.

Caterpillar said that it now expects restructuring costs of about $US550 million for the year, up from the $US400 million it had previously predicted. The Peoria, Illinois-based company said the main reason for the increase in costs was because it decided to end production of on-highway vocational trucks.