Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Short Interest Up 10.7% in March

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) was the target of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,000,000 shares, a growth of 10.7% from the March 15th total of 2,710,000 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Opinicus Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Deere & Company by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Opinicus Capital Inc. now owns 3,375 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,386,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A. boosted its stake in Deere & Company by 1.0% in the first quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 3,401 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,397,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the period. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Deere & Company by 65.4% in the first quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 923 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Asio Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Deere & Company during the first quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Finally, Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Deere & Company during the 1st quarter worth approximately $200,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on DE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $425.00 to $401.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Deere & Company from $445.00 to $425.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Deere & Company from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Deere & Company in a research note on Monday, January 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $430.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Deere & Company from $450.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $433.28.

Deere & Company Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE DE opened at $393.11 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $109.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.81. Deere & Company has a 12 month low of $345.55 and a 12 month high of $450.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $384.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $382.56.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $1.04. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 44.60%. The business had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $6.55 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Deere & Company will post 27.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Shareholders 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 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is currently 17.12%.

Deere & Company 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.