Korea Investment CORP Lowers Position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Korea Investment CORP cut its holdings in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 358,028 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 11,406 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP owned about 0.12% of Deere & Company worth $145,069,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 98,818.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 15,922,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,451,792,000 after acquiring an additional 15,906,784 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 41,880.9% during the 1st quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,703,524 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,814,000 after acquiring an additional 5,689,938 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,807,126 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,979,416,000 after acquiring an additional 14,732 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,576,183 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,962,085,000 after acquiring an additional 554,133 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Deere & Company by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,393,214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,813,871,000 after purchasing an additional 381,506 shares in the last quarter. 66.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $455.00 to $422.50 in a research note on Wednesday, October 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $493.00 to $460.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of Deere & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $530.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Friday, September 22nd. Credit Suisse Group cut their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $560.00 to $551.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 21st. Finally, HSBC started coverage on shares of Deere & Company in a research note on Friday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $486.00 target price on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Deere & Company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $447.93.

Deere & Company Price Performance

Deere & Company stock traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $380.44. 729,844 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,551,948. The company has a market capitalization of $109.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $381.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $394.36. Deere & Company has a 1 year low of $345.55 and a 1 year high of $450.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.98.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 18th. The industrial products company reported $10.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.22 by $1.98. The company had revenue of $14.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.14 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 46.15% and a net margin of 16.36%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $6.16 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Deere & Company will post 33.89 EPS for the current year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th were issued a $1.35 dividend. This is a boost from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 15.96%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ryan D. Campbell sold 6,073 shares of Deere & Company stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $379.19, for a total value of $2,302,820.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 18,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,022,219.61. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

About Deere & Company

Deere & Company manufactures and distributes 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 mid-size tractors, combines, cotton pickers and strippers, sugarcane harvesters, harvesting front-end equipment, sugarcane loaders, 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.