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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Deere (DE) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to DE for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Deere's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Deere's main business drivers.
Illinois-based Deere is the world’s largest producer of agricultural equipment, manufacturing agricultural machinery since 1837 under the iconic John Deere brand with its signature green and yellow color scheme. It is the 76th-largest company in the S&P 500 Index with a market capitalization of around $111 billion. It has an advantage in most farm machinery categories as its machines come with advanced features and are better constructed than its competitors. Deere is currently the world leader in precision agriculture and remains focused on revolutionizing agriculture with technology, in an effort to make farming automated, easier and more precise across the production process.
Beginning fiscal 2021, the company has four reportable segments. Agriculture and turf operations had been divided into two new segments:
The Production and Precision Agriculture segment (46% of equipment revenues in fiscal 2022) is responsible for defining, developing, and delivering global equipment and technology solutions that cater to production-scale growers of large grains, small grains, cotton, and sugar. Primary products include large and certain mid-size tractors, combines, cotton pickers, sugarcane harvesters and loaders, and soil preparation, seeding, application and crop care equipment.
The Small Agriculture and Turf segment (28% of equipment revenues in fiscal 2022) will deliver products to support mid-size and small growers and producers globally, and turf customers. It will cater to production systems for dairy and livestock, high-value crops, and turf and utility operators. Products include certain mid-size and small tractors, and hay and forage equipment, riding and commercial lawn equipment, golf course equipment, and utility vehicles.
The Construction and Forestry (26% of equipment revenues in fiscal 2022) segment manufactures machines and service parts used in construction, earthmoving, material handling and timber harvesting. Deere also manufactures and distributes road building equipment through its wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Wirtgen Group.