Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC Purchases 115 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC raised its position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,786 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $10,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Deere & Company by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,988,363 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,031,500,000 after purchasing an additional 263,709 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Deere & Company by 0.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,859,021 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,585,028,000 after acquiring an additional 19,200 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,856,171 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,541,967,000 after acquiring an additional 705,771 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Deere & Company during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,248,036,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Deere & Company by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,481,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $592,391,000 after purchasing an additional 150,713 shares during the period. 68.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of Deere & Company stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $15,725,268.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Deere & Company from $465.00 to $448.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $395.00 to $370.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $414.11.

Deere & Company Price Performance

DE opened at $387.23 on Tuesday. Deere & Company has a 1 year low of $340.20 and a 1 year high of $417.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The company has a market capitalization of $105.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $369.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $380.89.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $11.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.94 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 36.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $10.20 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Deere & Company will post 25.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 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.