Granite Investment Partners LLC Increases Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Granite Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 0.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 51,406 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 37 shares during the quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $19,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of DE. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 981 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $403,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Field & Main Bank raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 4,050 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,663,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $225,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 1,146 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $471,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, First Foundation Advisors raised its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 1,249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DE. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $395.00 to $370.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. HSBC lowered shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $402.00 to $389.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a report on Friday, June 28th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $420.00 price target for the company. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $409.88.

Insider Transactions at Deere & Company

In other news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total value of $5,048,913.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 41,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,725,268.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Trading Up 2.1 %

Deere & Company stock opened at $409.53 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $375.43 and its 200-day moving average is $382.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.07. Deere & Company has a 1 year low of $340.20 and a 1 year high of $417.46. The company has a market cap of $112.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.33, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.92.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Deere & Company had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 36.71%. The company had revenue of $11.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.94 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $10.20 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Deere & Company will post 25.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

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 given a $1.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is currently 17.70%.

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.