First Merchants Corp Increases Stock Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

First Merchants Corp increased its stake in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,625 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 241 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $1,728,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DE. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Deere & Company by 27.4% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $710,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC grew its position in 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 valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in 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 valued at $628,105,000 after buying an additional 31,074 shares during the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP raised its position in Deere & Company by 857.9% in the fourth quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 7,654 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,061,000 after acquiring an additional 6,855 shares during the period. Finally, Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the 1st quarter worth $2,783,000. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Deere & Company

In other news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

DE opened at $381.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.47, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a fifty day moving average of $367.88 and a 200 day moving average of $379.93. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $340.20 and a fifty-two week high of $423.35.

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

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Deere & Company from $371.00 to $378.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. HSBC cut Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Deere & Company from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Deere & Company from $395.00 to $370.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began 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 on the stock. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $415.50.

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.