Deere & Company manufactures and distributes various equipment worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Production and Precision Agriculture, Small Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Production and Precision Agriculture segment provides mid-size tractors, combines, cotton pickers and strippers, sugarcane harvesters, harvesting front-end equipment, sugarcane loaders, pull-behind scrapers, and tillage and seeding equipment, as well as application equipment, including sprayers and nutrient management, and soil preparation machinery for grain growers. The Small Agriculture and Turf segment offers utility tractors, and related loaders and attachments; turf and utility equipment, including riding lawn equipment, commercial mowing equipment, golf course equipment, and utility vehicles, as well as implements for mowing, tilling, snow and debris handling, aerating, residential, commercial, golf, and sports turf care applications; other outdoor power products; and hay and forage equipment. This segment also resells products from other manufacturers. It serves dairy and livestock producers, crop producers, and turf and utility customers. The Construction and Forestry segment provides a range of backhoe loaders, crawler dozers and loaders, four-wheel-drive loaders, excavators, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, landscape and skid-steer loaders, milling machines, pavers, compactors, rollers, crushers, screens, asphalt plants, log skidders, log feller bunchers, log loaders and forwarders, log harvesters, and attachments; and roadbuilding equipment. The Financial Services segment finances sales and leases agriculture and turf, and construction and forestry equipment. It also offers wholesale financing to dealers of the foregoing equipment; and extended equipment warranties, as well as finances retail revolving charge accounts. Deere & Company was founded in 1837 and is headquartered in Moline, Illinois.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Cowen cut their target price on Deere & Company from $396.00 to $342.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $455.00 to $410.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 23rd. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $487.00 to $442.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Sunday, May 22nd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Deere & Company from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $435.00 to $340.00 in a report on Thursday, July 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Friday, May 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $398.00.
Deere & Company Stock Down 1.4 %
Shares of NYSE:DE opened at $364.69 on Thursday. Deere & Company has a 12-month low of $283.81 and a 12-month high of $446.76. The stock has a market cap of $111.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.02, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $322.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $364.12.
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 20th. The industrial products company reported $6.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.65 by $0.16. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 33.58% and a net margin of 12.99%. The business had revenue of $12.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.68 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Deere & Company will post 23.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Deere & Company Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 30th were given a dividend of $1.13 per share. This is a boost from Deere & Company's previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. This represents a $4.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 29th. Deere & Company's payout ratio is 23.58%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Deere & Company news, insider John H. Stone sold 17,145 shares of Deere & Company stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,321.07, for a total transaction of $74,084,745.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 21,087 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $91,118,403.09. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.24% of the company's stock.
