Everence Capital Management Inc. Purchases 7,300 Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Everence Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 148.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 12,223 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,300 shares during the quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $5,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in DE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Deere & Company by 32.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,352,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,068,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,782,984 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Deere & Company by 27.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,542,013 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,895,518,000 after buying an additional 988,380 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in Deere & Company by 53,338.6% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 854,484 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $356,602,000 after buying an additional 852,885 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 46,892.9% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 772,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $322,218,000 after acquiring an additional 770,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stockbridge Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 157.5% in the third quarter. Stockbridge Partners LLC now owns 884,237 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $369,019,000 after acquiring an additional 540,874 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.58% of the company’s stock.

Deere & Company Price Performance

Shares of DE traded up $1.65 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $419.83. 227,873 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 604,233. The stock has a market cap of $114.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.40, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $427.09 and a 200-day moving average of $398.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 2.09. Deere & Company has a 52 week low of $340.20 and a 52 week high of $469.39.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The industrial products company reported $4.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.66. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.20 billion. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 31.32% and a net margin of 13.73%. The company’s revenue was down 32.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $8.26 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This is an increase from Deere & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Deere & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.31%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $460.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Deere & Company from $448.00 to $477.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $420.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Deere & Company from $401.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Deere & Company from $404.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $443.94.

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.