Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $443.94.

Several brokerages have recently commented on DE. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $460.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Deere & Company from $448.00 to $477.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Deere & Company

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in Deere & Company during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Centennial Bank AR increased its position in shares of Deere & Company by 420.0% during the 2nd quarter. Centennial Bank AR now owns 104 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Deere & Company by 155.8% during the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DE opened at $430.17 on Tuesday. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $340.20 and a fifty-two week high of $469.39. The company has a market capitalization of $117.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $428.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $400.45.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The industrial products company reported $4.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.66. The company had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.20 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 31.32% and a net margin of 13.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 32.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $8.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $1.62 dividend. This is a boost from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 22.97%.

Deere & Company Company Profile

Deere & Co engages in the manufacture and distribution of equipment used in agriculture, construction, forestry, and turf care. It operates through the following segments: Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Agriculture and Turf segment focuses on the distribution and manufacture of a full line of agriculture and turf equipment and related service parts.