Deere & Company (DE) Competitors

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) and Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Is DE or LECO more profitable?

Lincoln Electric has a net margin of 12.27% compared to Deere & Company's net margin of 11.72%. Lincoln Electric's return on equity of 39.79% beat Deere & Company's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Deere & Company	11.72%	21.97%	4.91%
Lincoln Electric	12.27%	39.79%	14.74%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, DE or LECO?

Deere & Company has higher revenue and earnings than Lincoln Electric. Deere & Company is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lincoln Electric, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Deere & Company	$51.72B	2.59	$7.10B	$19.13	25.88
Lincoln Electric	$4.01B	3.38	$466.11M	$8.90	27.56

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in DE or LECO?

68.6% of Deere & Company shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Deere & Company shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Lincoln Electric shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, DE or LECO?

Deere & Company has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lincoln Electric has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is DE or LECO a better dividend stock?

Deere & Company pays an annual dividend of $6.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Lincoln Electric pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Deere & Company pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lincoln Electric pays out 33.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Deere & Company has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer DE or LECO?

Deere & Company presently has a consensus price target of $523.87, indicating a potential upside of 5.81%. Lincoln Electric has a consensus price target of $231.40, indicating a potential downside of 5.65%. Given Deere & Company's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Deere & Company is more favorable than Lincoln Electric.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Deere & Company	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.56
Lincoln Electric	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Does the media prefer DE or LECO?

In the previous week, Deere & Company had 40 more articles in the media than Lincoln Electric. MarketBeat recorded 56 mentions for Deere & Company and 16 mentions for Lincoln Electric. Lincoln Electric's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Deere & Company's score of 0.97 indicating that Lincoln Electric is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Deere & Company	38 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lincoln Electric	13 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Lincoln Electric beats Deere & Company on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.