Forsta AP Fonden Lowers Stock Holdings in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Forsta AP Fonden reduced its position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,600 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $24,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of DE. Ascent Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Deere & Company by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 1,620 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $605,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Deere & Company during the second quarter valued at about $615,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.6% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 19,150 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,155,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the second quarter worth about $102,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 76.1% in the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,069 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,894,000 after acquiring an additional 2,190 shares during the last quarter. 68.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $450.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $470.00 to $430.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on Deere & Company from $538.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eleven equities 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, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $444.50.

Deere & Company Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE DE opened at $480.59 on Wednesday. Deere & Company has a 1 year low of $340.20 and a 1 year high of $485.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $441.75 and a 200 day moving average of $408.11. The stock has a market cap of $130.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.98.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The industrial products company reported $4.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.66. Deere & Company had a net margin of 13.73% and a return on equity of 31.32%. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $8.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 32.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 19.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.31%.

About Deere & Company

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.