Deere is reporting a surprisingly strong first quarter after an extended period in which it was bruised by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China
By
MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer
February 21, 2020, 1:21 PM
1 min read
Deere is reporting a surprisingly strong first quarter after an extended period in which it was bruised by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.
“Farmer confidence, though still subdued, has improved due in part to hopes for a relaxation of trade tensions and higher agricultural exports,” CEO John May said in a prepared statement Friday.
The company, based in Moline, Illinois, has posted three consecutive quarters of falling profits and slowing sales growth with trade tensions between the world's two largest economies very high.
For the three months ended Feb. 2, Deere Co. earned $517 million, or $1.63 per share. The per-share earnings easily beat the $1.28 that industry analysts had expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research, and it topped last year's quarterly profit of $498 million, or $1.54 per share.
Adjusted revenue was $6.53 billion, also beating Wall Street's estimate of $6.2 billion.
Shares of Deere & Co. jumped 6% before the opening bell.
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Portions of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/DE
