Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) to Issue $1.47 Quarterly Dividend

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 28th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 1.47 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, November 8th. This represents a $5.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%.

Deere & Company has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.5% annually over the last three years. Deere & Company has a payout ratio of 26.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Deere & Company to earn $24.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.3%.

Deere & Company Price Performance

Shares of DE stock traded up $1.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $377.93. The company had a trading volume of 1,096,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,532,167. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.80. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $367.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $379.83. Deere & Company has a 52-week low of $340.20 and a 52-week high of $423.35. The company has a market capitalization of $104.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.93.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The industrial products company reported $6.29 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.63 by $0.66. The business had revenue of $11.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.94 billion. Deere & Company had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 42.26%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $10.20 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 25.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Deere & Company from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Deere & Company from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $450.00 to $425.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $483.00 to $465.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Deere & Company from $371.00 to $378.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $414.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Cory J. Reed sold 13,370 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.63, for a total transaction of $5,048,913.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 41,642 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,725,268.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.