Hills Bank & Trust Co Trims Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Hills Bank & Trust Co cut its holdings in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 8,153 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 289 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $3,260,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its position in Deere & Company by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 5,355 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,141,000 after buying an additional 939 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Deere & Company by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 236,696 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,322,000 after acquiring an additional 5,485 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in shares of Deere & Company by 6.9% during the third quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 14,002 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,284,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the period. Summit Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Deere & Company by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $412,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Centric Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,640,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial began coverage on Deere & Company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $494.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Deere & Company from $445.00 to $425.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Deere & Company from $450.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $435.00 to $425.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $433.28.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

Shares of DE stock traded down $1.14 on Friday, hitting $407.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 859,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,439,569. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.05. The company has a market capitalization of $113.53 billion, a PE ratio of 11.86, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $394.82 and its 200-day moving average is $384.55. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $345.55 and a fifty-two week high of $450.00.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.30 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 44.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $6.55 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 27.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were paid a $1.47 dividend. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 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.