CluenexDeere & Company DE
Deere & Company scores weak on business quality (3.2 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Deere & Company does
Deere makes money by manufacturing heavy machinery for agriculture, turf, and construction, selling equipment through a global dealer network to farmers and contractors. The business is shifting toward precision technology and smaller equipment lines to reshape its growth narrative.
- What it does best
Deere dominates agricultural machinery through an entrenched dealer network and proprietary precision tech, generating a 36.6% gross margin that outpaces peers like AGCO at 25.3%.
- The main risk
High debt levels leave the balance sheet vulnerable if heavy equipment demand softens further. With total debt at $63.9B and interest coverage at 3.2x, earnings are tightly bound to borrowing costs.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin holds at 19.5% and FCF margin at 6.7%, reflecting solid operational efficiency despite top-line contraction, but profitability weakens as revenue scales downward.
Scale and dealer network lock in commercial farmers, backed by an operating margin ranking in the sector's top quartile at 73rd percentile, though overall moat strength remains moderate.
Revenue is contracting at an 11.6% rate to $48.0B, fading sharply compared to historical peaks above $61B as agricultural equipment demand cools.
Leverage is heavy with a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.5x and interest coverage at 3.2x, leaving little margin for error. Free cash flow sits at $3.2B, softening versus prior years.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on DE
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Deere & Company scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.2 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is fair, moat fair, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 25, 2026, after the close.
See DE today
- Today's verdict on DE, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Deere & Company (DE)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/de/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.