Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Trading Up 0.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)’s stock price rose 0.2% during trading on Monday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $415.00 to $425.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Deere & Company traded as high as $404.22 and last traded at $398.08. Approximately 252,239 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 1,480,406 shares. The stock had previously closed at $397.27.

DE has been the subject of several other reports. Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Deere & Company in a report on Monday, January 8th. Melius downgraded shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $435.00 to $425.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $450.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Monday, January 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $430.00 price target for the company. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $433.28.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its holdings in Deere & Company by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 5,355 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,141,000 after purchasing an additional 939 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Deere & Company by 2.4% during the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 236,696 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,322,000 after purchasing an additional 5,485 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its holdings in Deere & Company by 6.9% during the third quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 14,002 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,284,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management bought a new position in Deere & Company in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,640,000. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in Deere & Company by 483.3% in the third quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 17,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,604,000 after buying an additional 14,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $384.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $382.45. The stock has a market cap of $109.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.04.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $1.04. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 44.60%. The firm had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 27.41 EPS for the current year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 29th will be paid a $1.47 dividend. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is currently 17.12%.

About Deere & Company

Deere & Company engages in the manufacture and distribution of 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 large and medium tractors, combines, cotton pickers and strippers, sugarcane harvesters and loaders, harvesting front-end equipment, 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.