Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The industrial products company reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.05, Zacks reports. Deere & Company had a net margin of 13.73% and a return on equity of 31.32%.

Deere & Company Price Performance

NYSE DE opened at $480.17 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. Deere & Company has a 12-month low of $340.20 and a 12-month high of $485.84. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $446.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $416.21.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $1.62 dividend. This is a positive change from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is currently 25.31%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DE. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded 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 note on Friday, December 6th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $448.72.

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.