Shares of Deere & Co. DE dropped 6% in premarket Wednesday, after the maker of agricultural, construction and forestry equipment reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations but provided a downbeat full-year outlook, with all of its businesses expected to see sales decline by at least 10%. Net income for the quarter to Oct. 29 rose to $2.37 billion, or $8.26 a share, from $2.25 billion, or $7.44 a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was $7.46. Sales slipped 0.8% to $15.41 billion, but was well above the FactSet consensus of $13.64 billion, as production and precision agriculture sales fell 6% and small agriculture and turf sales declined 13% while construction and forestry sales grew 11%. For fiscal 2024, the company expects net income of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $9.31 billion, “as volumes return to mid-cycle levels.” The company expects sales for production and precision ag and small ag and turf sales to be 10% to 15% and construction and forestry sales to be down about 10%. Deere’s stock has eased 0.7% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 3.4%.
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