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 Stock Performance
Shares of Deere & Company stock traded up $6.24 on Friday, reaching $368.16. The stock had a trading volume of 1,254,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,914,800. The business's 50-day moving average price is $322.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $364.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.07. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $283.81 and a fifty-two week high of $446.76. The stock has a market cap of $112.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.10.
Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 20th. The industrial products company reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.65 by $0.16. Deere & Company had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 33.58%. The business had revenue of $12.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.68 earnings per share. Deere & Company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 23.3 EPS for the current 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 paid a $1.13 dividend. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. This is a boost from Deere & Company's previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 29th. Deere & Company's payout ratio is presently 23.58%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
DE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of Deere & Company from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $401.00 to $416.00 in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $415.00 to $400.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 23rd. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $480.00 to $445.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 23rd. Credit Suisse Group set a $393.00 price objective on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Tuesday, July 19th. Finally, Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $396.00 to $342.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $398.00.
Insider Transactions at Deere & Company
In related news, insider John H. Stone sold 17,145 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4,321.07, for a total transaction of $74,084,745.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $91,118,403.09. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.