Vista Investment Partners LLC Grows Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Vista Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 7,950 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $2,970,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $710,000 after buying an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.0% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 31,074 shares during the period. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Deere & Company by 857.9% during the fourth quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 7,654 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,061,000 after purchasing an additional 6,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Deere & Company in the first quarter worth $2,783,000. 68.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Deere & Company from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $395.00 to $370.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $400.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Deere & Company from $383.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $443.00 price objective (up previously from $439.00) on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Friday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $422.35.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total value of $5,048,913.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 41,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,725,268.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

DE stock traded up $4.66 on Friday, hitting $377.92. The company had a trading volume of 2,103,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,549,985. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Deere & Company has a 12-month low of $340.20 and a 12-month high of $425.42. The stock has a market cap of $104.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $367.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $380.45.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.63 by $0.66. The firm had revenue of $11.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.94 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 42.26% and a net margin of 16.15%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $10.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 25.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.70%.

Deere & 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.