LPL Financial LLC Reduces Stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

LPL Financial LLC lowered its stake in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 359,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 31,402 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.13% of Deere & Company worth $150,234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tradewinds LLC. raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 5.8% in the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 14,814 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,182,000 after buying an additional 813 shares during the period. SSI Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Deere & Company in the 3rd quarter valued at about $200,000. Cypress Capital Group raised its stake in Deere & Company by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cypress Capital Group now owns 2,666 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 708 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in Deere & Company by 11.9% during the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 3,032 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,265,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Advisors LLC boosted its position in Deere & Company by 2.4% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 21,300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $8,889,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $371.00 to $378.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. HSBC lowered Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Deere & Company from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Deere & Company from $395.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Deere & Company from $402.00 to $389.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $431.61.

Deere & Company Stock Up 2.1 %

DE opened at $446.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $406.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $386.49. Deere & Company has a 52 week low of $340.20 and a 52 week high of $447.50. The stock has a market cap of $122.20 billion, a PE ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.93.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The industrial products company reported $4.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.65. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 36.71% and a net margin of 14.69%. The company had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $8.26 EPS. Deere & Company’s quarterly revenue was down 32.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $1.47 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.06%.

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.