(DE; A1/A/A+)
Weak Industry demand continues to impact Deere. Credit Neutral
• Overall Equipment (ex-Fin. Services) revenues declined 9% y/y to $12bn due to lower equipment sales volumes across all 3 of Deere's segments as well as lower realized prices on larger Agriculture equipment and Construction machinery.
• Equipment operating margin was down 590 bps y/y to 14.6% as a result of lower overall shipment volumes, unfavorable sales mix in Large Agricultural machinery and higher costs due to tariffs.
• Deere provided an updated Industry Outlook for Ag & Turf market demand for FY25. Deere expects industry volumes to decline 30% in the US/Canada for Large Agricultural machinery with Europe flat to -5% and South America expected to be flat. For Construction/Forestry Equipment, Deere expects a 10% decline in the US/Canada for FY25 with flat to down 5% expected across ex-US markets.
• For the quarter, DE's adjusted EPS of $4.75 was slightly ahead of Bloomberg consensus estimates of $4.70.
• DE updated FY25 guidance with net income of $4.75bn-$5.25bn versus prior expectations of $4.75bn-$5.50bn and net operating cash flow of $4.5bn-$5.5bn versus FY24 CFO of $6.9bn (Equipment operations only).
• For Deere Equipment (ex-Fin. Services), the Company generated $1.56bn of FCF post-dividends and repurchased $298mm of shares in the quarter.
• The Company ended the quarter with gross leverage (ex-Financial Services) of ~1.5x which has increased ~0.5x from FYE24 due primarily to lower EBITDA vs. FY24 and a modest increase in gross debt outstanding.
• We note that DE keeps overall leverage at the Equipment Company relatively low given the cyclical nature of the business and management reiterated its top priority for use of Cash from Operations was to maintain "A" ratings. While leverage has increased, we wouldn't expect any rating impact and believe DE would use FCF to defend the current ratings.
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In contrast to core CPI, headline inflation was stronger in June than expected, rising 0.29% M/M (0.28% MNI median, 0.08% prior), for a 2.93% Y/Y rate (2.92% MNI median, 2.79% prior). Both food and energy came in above-expected.




Fed pricing sees a modest dovish reaction to the CPI data, although the readings provided little differentiation vs. headline BBG survey expectations on net (but did include a 0.1ppt downside surprise for unrounded M/M core CPI & a 0.1ppt upside surprise for unrounded headline CPI).