Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Grows Position in Deere & Company $DE

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 215.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 66,680 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $49,624,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. OLD National Bancorp IN lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 24,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,204,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Deere & Company by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 14,639 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,871,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc lifted its position in Deere & Company by 12.7% in the first quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc now owns 7,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,386,000 after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the last quarter. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $13,588,000. Finally, United Asset Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Deere & Company in the first quarter worth approximately $2,496,000. Institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $525.00 to $515.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $487.00 to $521.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Deere & Company in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Research downgraded Deere & Company from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Deere & Company in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $520.05.

Deere & Company Stock Up 0.5%

DE stock opened at $475.76 on Friday. Deere & Company has a fifty-two week low of $390.00 and a fifty-two week high of $533.78. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $466.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $490.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 2.19. The company has a market capitalization of $128.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.04.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The industrial products company reported $4.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.62 by $0.13. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 21.97% and a net margin of 11.72%.The company had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $6.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.87%.

About Deere & Company

Deere & Co engages in the manufacture and distribution of equipment used in agriculture, construction, forestry, and turf care. It operates through the following segments: Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Agriculture and Turf segment focuses on the distribution and manufacture of a full line of agriculture and turf equipment and related service parts.