Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Acquires 37 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,103 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 37 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $4,281,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Deere & Company during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in Deere & Company during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 155.8% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DE. UBS Group increased their target price on Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $470.00 to $430.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective 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. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $444.50.

Deere & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DE opened at $465.63 on Monday. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $445.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $413.15. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $340.20 and a fifty-two week high of $485.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.98.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.20 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 13.73% and a return on equity of 31.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 32.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.26 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Deere & Company will post 19.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is a positive change 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 1.39%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.31%.

Deere & Company 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.