Blue Trust Inc. Sells 264 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Blue Trust Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 6.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,597 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 264 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $1,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its stake in Deere & Company by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 5,355 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,141,000 after purchasing an additional 939 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 27.4% in the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $710,000 after acquiring an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.4% in the third 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. Summit Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,570,773 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $628,105,000 after acquiring an additional 31,074 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $383.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $483.00 to $465.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Raymond James started coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $420.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $430.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $427.66.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total value of $5,048,913.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 41,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,725,268.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Deere & Company Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of DE stock traded down $2.76 on Friday, hitting $360.03. The stock had a trading volume of 1,273,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,533,038. Deere & Company has a twelve month low of $353.15 and a twelve month high of $450.00. The firm has a market cap of $99.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.84, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $381.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $386.45.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The industrial products company reported $8.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.86 by $0.67. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 42.26%. The company had revenue of $13.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $9.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 25.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $1.47 dividend. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.70%.

Deere & Company Company Profile

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.