Deere & Co Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, November 21, 2012. Deere & Company provides products and services for agriculture, forestry, construction, landscaping, and irrigation.

Deere & Co Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for profit of $1.87 per share, a rise of 15.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.89. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $1.87 during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 17% versus last year to $7.76.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company missed estimates by 33 cents, coming in at net income of $1.98 per share versus a mean estimate of profit of $2.31 per share. In the second quarter, the company beat estimates by 7 cents.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts are projecting a rise of 11.6% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $8.82 billion.

Stock Price Performance: Between August 22, 2012 and November 15, 2012, the stock price rose $8.36 (10.9%), from $77.03 to $85.39. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between December 30, 2011 and January 11, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 9.2% (+$7.15) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between December 9, 2011 and December 19, 2011 when shares fell for seven straight days, dropping 6.1% (-$4.78) over that span.

A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit rose 10.6% to $788 million ($1.98 a share) from $712.3 million ($1.69 a share) the year earlier, but fell short analyst expectations. Revenue rose 21.7% to $9.59 billion from $7.88 billion.

Key Stats:

This upcoming earnings announcement will be a chance to build on positive earnings momentum over the last three quarters. Net income rose 3.7% in the first quarter and 16.8% in the second quarter before increasing again in the third quarter.

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 12.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, 2.8% in the first quarter and 18.6% in the second quarter before increasing again in the third quarter.

Analyst Ratings: With nine analysts rating the stock a buy, two rating it a sell and six rating the stock a hold, there are indications of a bullish stance by analysts.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 2.23 last quarter. Having a ratio above 2:1 is usually considered a good indicator of a company’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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