Bailard Inc. Raises Stock Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Bailard Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 156.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,030 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 2,458 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $1,611,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the third quarter worth $25,000. ZRC Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Naples Money Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Bfsg LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. 68.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on DE. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $435.00 to $425.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. Melius lowered shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Melius Research restated a “hold” rating on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $494.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $381.00 to $387.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $433.28.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

DE stock traded down $2.41 during trading on Friday, hitting $391.65. 166,788 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,462,332. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Deere & Company has a 52 week low of $345.55 and a 52 week high of $450.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $387.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $383.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.04.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.30 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 44.60%. Deere & Company’s revenue was down 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Deere & Company will post 27.37 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $1.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.