S.A. Mason LLC Cuts Stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

S.A. Mason LLC reduced its position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 22.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 232 shares during the quarter. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 939 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 27.4% during 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 during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.4% during the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 236,696 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,322,000 after buying an additional 5,485 shares during the period. Summit Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $412,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,570,773 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $628,105,000 after buying an additional 31,074 shares during the period. 68.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DE has been the subject of several research reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $456.00 price objective on shares of Deere & Company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $425.00 to $385.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Daiwa Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $395.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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 nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $431.14.

Deere & Company Price Performance

Shares of Deere & Company stock traded up $1.71 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $377.96. The stock had a trading volume of 141,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,463,713. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $386.75 and its 200 day moving average is $387.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.15 billion, a PE ratio of 11.32, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.98. Deere & Company has a twelve month low of $353.15 and a twelve month high of $450.00. 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 (NYSE:DE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 16th. The industrial products company reported $8.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.86 by $0.67. The business had revenue of $13.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.29 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 42.26%. The company’s revenue was down 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $9.65 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 25.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $1.47 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.70%.

Insider Transactions at Deere & Company

In other news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total transaction of $5,048,913.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 41,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,725,268.46. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.