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.
Deere & Company Trading Up 0.3 %
Shares of DE Stock traded up $0.93 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $343.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 917,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,258,217. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $323.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $364.68. Deere & Company has a 52 week low of $283.81 and a 52 week high of $446.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.07. The company has a market cap of $104.93 billion, a PE ratio of 17.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.10.
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 20th. The industrial products company reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $12.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.68 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 23.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Deere & Company Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 30th will be given a $1.13 dividend. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. This is a positive change from Deere & Company's previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 29th. Deere & Company's payout ratio is presently 23.58%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several equities research analysts have weighed in 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. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Deere & Company from $487.00 to $442.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Sunday, May 22nd. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Deere & Company from $419.00 to $365.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Deere & Company in a research note on Friday, May 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Deere & Company from $450.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Friday, July 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $399.56.
Insider Activity at Deere & Company
In related news, insider John H. Stone sold 17,145 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,321.07, for a total value 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.