First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Grows Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 393 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $2,411,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Deere & Company by 1.4% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,873 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,180,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Deere & Company by 46.0% in the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 1,010 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management boosted its position in Deere & Company by 7.8% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 4,852 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,993,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Deere & Company by 2.9% in the first quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC now owns 2,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,184,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc lifted its position in shares of Deere & Company by 22.8% during the 1st quarter. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc now owns 4,764 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,957,000 after buying an additional 886 shares in the last quarter. 68.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Daiwa Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Deere & Company from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Deere & Company from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Deere & Company from $460.00 to $439.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Deere & Company from $483.00 to $465.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Deere & Company in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $395.00 price objective on the stock. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $427.66.

Deere & Company Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of DE opened at $362.79 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Deere & Company has a 12-month low of $353.15 and a 12-month high of $450.00. The business’s 50 day moving average is $382.63 and its 200 day moving average is $386.61. The company has a market capitalization of $99.97 billion, a PE ratio of 10.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.93.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 16th. The industrial products company reported $8.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.86 by $0.67. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 42.26% and a net margin of 16.15%. The business had revenue of $13.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.65 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 25.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $1.47 dividend. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 17.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Deere & Company news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of Deere & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total value of $5,048,913.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 41,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,725,268.46. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Profile

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.