Deere & Company to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.47 (NYSE:DE)

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 28th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th will be paid a dividend of 1.47 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 8th. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th.

Deere & Company has increased its dividend by an average of 20.5% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Deere & Company has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Deere & Company to earn $27.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.8%.

Deere & Company Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of DE opened at $398.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $379.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $381.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.05. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $345.55 and a fifty-two week high of $450.00. The firm has a market cap of $110.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.59, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.03.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $1.04. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 44.60% and a net margin of 16.38%. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.55 EPS. Deere & Company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 27.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Deere & Company

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Retirement Group LLC lifted its position in Deere & Company by 264.7% during the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 62 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Worth Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. West Tower Group LLC increased its position in shares of Deere & Company by 188.6% during the 4th quarter. West Tower Group LLC now owns 101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $60,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $450.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $381.00 to $387.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Deere & Company from $445.00 to $425.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Melius lowered Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $425.00 to $401.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $431.69.

About Deere & Company

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.