New Century Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

New Century Financial Group LLC decreased its stake in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 183 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of DE. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in Deere & Company by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 31,298 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,740 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 80.5% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 9,171 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,427,000 after purchasing an additional 4,091 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Deere & Company by 10.2% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. raised its stake in Deere & Company by 145.0% in the second quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 4,997 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after buying an additional 2,957 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. raised its stake in Deere & Company by 56.3% in the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 255,429 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,436,000 after buying an additional 92,049 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DE. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Deere & Company from $470.00 to $430.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $450.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Deere & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $442.83.

Deere & Company Stock Up 3.4 %

Deere & Company stock opened at $475.22 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $435.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $404.30. Deere & Company has a twelve month low of $340.20 and a twelve month high of $475.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56, a PEG ratio of 2.86 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 (NYSE:DE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The industrial products company reported $4.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.66. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.20 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 31.32% and a net margin of 13.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 32.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $8.26 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 19.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $1.62 dividend. This is an increase from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is presently 25.31%.

Deere & 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.