Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Sells 296,686 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. decreased its stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Free Report) by 39.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 452,643 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 296,686 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.17% of Deere & Company worth $212,448,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of DE. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,548 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,927,000 after acquiring an additional 1,278 shares during the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 4,235 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,115 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,779 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,776,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 747 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 178,456 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $75,612,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $462.00 to $440.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $475.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Deere & Company from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and issued a $542.00 price target on shares of Deere & Company in a report on Friday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $515.50.

Deere & Company Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of DE traded up $2.92 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $517.58. 858,413 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,107,224. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $513.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $483.78. Deere & Company has a 52 week low of $340.20 and a 52 week high of $533.78. The company has a market cap of $140.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.04, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.08.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.72 by $0.92. Deere & Company had a net margin of 12.40% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The company had revenue of $11.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.80 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $8.53 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.32 EPS for the current year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. Deere & Company's dividend payout ratio is 31.35%.

Deere & Company Profile

Deere & Co engages in the manufacture and distribution of equipment used in agriculture, construction, forestry, and turf care. It operates through the following segments: Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Agriculture and Turf segment focuses on the distribution and manufacture of a full line of agriculture and turf equipment and related service parts.