Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Stock Position Lifted by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,114 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $896,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pineridge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 60.5% in the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 69 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Deere & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new position in Deere & Company in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Deere & Company in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 155.8% during the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on DE shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Deere & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Deere & Company from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Deere & Company from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $454.65.

Deere & Company Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE DE opened at $480.69 on Friday. Deere & Company has a twelve month low of $340.20 and a twelve month high of $515.05. The stock has a market cap of $130.92 billion, a PE ratio of 21.31, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $456.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $424.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 2.22.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.05. Deere & Company had a net margin of 12.94% and a return on equity of 27.31%. On average, research analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.32 EPS for the current year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is presently 28.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Rajesh Kalathur sold 24,580 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $500.61, for a total transaction of $12,304,993.80. Following the sale, the insider now owns 74,878 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,484,675.58. This represents a 24.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.