Verus Capital Partners LLC Has $779,000 Holdings in Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Verus Capital Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,837 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Deere & Company were worth $779,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Deere & Company by 32.0% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 1,782,984 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Deere & Company by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,208,368 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,168,737,000 after acquiring an additional 31,459 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Deere & Company by 27.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 988,380 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Deere & Company by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,063,898 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $874,473,000 after purchasing an additional 107,544 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Deere & Company by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,994,657 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $832,431,000 after purchasing an additional 158,732 shares during the last quarter. 68.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Deere & Company

In other news, insider Rajesh Kalathur sold 24,580 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.61, for a total transaction of $12,304,993.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 74,878 shares in the company, valued at $37,484,675.58. This represents a 24.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on DE shares. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Deere & Company from $437.00 to $455.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Deere & Company from $470.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Deere & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Deere & Company from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Deere & Company from $400.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Deere & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $454.65.

Deere & Company Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:DE opened at $480.25 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $130.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.29, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.98. Deere & Company has a 12 month low of $340.20 and a 12 month high of $515.05. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $456.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $425.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.94.

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.05. Deere & Company had a return on equity of 27.31% and a net margin of 12.94%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Deere & Company will post 19.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Deere & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Deere & Company’s payout ratio is 28.72%.

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.