Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Purchases 1,740 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 5.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 31,298 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,740 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Deere & Company were worth $11,694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of DE. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 705,771 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Deere & Company in the first quarter valued at approximately $191,628,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Deere & Company in the second quarter valued at approximately $166,937,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Deere & Company by 15.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,146,441 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $802,037,000 after buying an additional 279,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 263,709 shares during the last quarter. 68.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Deere & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DE opened at $406.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $112.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $377.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $383.38. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $340.20 and a fifty-two week high of $417.46.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.63 by $0.66. The firm had revenue of $11.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.94 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 36.71% and a net margin of 14.69%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $10.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Deere & Company will post 25.03 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $1.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 17.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Deere & Company from $371.00 to $378.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Hsbc Global Res cut Deere & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Raymond James initiated coverage on Deere & Company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $420.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Deere & Company from $450.00 to $425.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Deere & Company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $400.00 price objective for the company. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $410.50.

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.