Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Shares Sold by Alesco Advisors LLC

Alesco Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 15.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 604 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 110 shares during the quarter. Alesco Advisors LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of DE. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 46,241.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 840,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $336,142,000 after buying an additional 838,813 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 6.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,374,282 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,650,767,000 after buying an additional 269,571 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 94.0% during the third quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 301,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $113,759,000 after buying an additional 146,069 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,384,000. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,876,000. 68.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $435.00 to $425.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $381.00 to $387.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $445.00 to $425.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup decreased their price target 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. Finally, Melius lowered shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $433.28.

Deere & Company Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:DE traded down $0.72 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $393.34. 998,333 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,472,866. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.05. The company has a market cap of $109.49 billion, a PE ratio of 11.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $387.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $383.61. Deere & Company has a twelve month low of $345.55 and a twelve month high of $450.00.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.19 by $1.04. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 44.60%. The firm had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.55 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Deere & Company will post 27.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.47 per share. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.12%.

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.