Deere Releases 4Q Earnings, Beats Wall Street Forecasts

Deere & Co. released fiscal fourth-quarter profit Wednesday of $285.3 million, down from over $351 million in the fourth quarter last year.

The company said it had a net income of 90 cents, on a per-share basis.

The average estimate was 36 cents per-share by 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research, beating Wall Street expectations.

For the year, the company reported a profit of 1.52 billion, down from over $2 billion last year. Revenue was reported at $23.39 billion.

Deere says the low profit numbers are due to weak construction equipment markets and a global farm recession.

However, Deere shares have increased 21 percent since the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500 index has grown nearly 8 percent. The stock has also increased 23 percent in the last year.

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