Deere & Company (DE) Competitors

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, risk and valuation.

Is DE or CAT a better dividend stock?

Deere & Company pays an annual dividend of $5.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Caterpillar pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Deere & Company pays out 17.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Caterpillar pays out 23.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Deere & Company is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more risk & volatility, DE or CAT?

Deere & Company has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Caterpillar has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate DE or CAT?

Deere & Company currently has a consensus price target of $432.92, indicating a potential upside of 15.52%. Caterpillar has a consensus price target of $323.35, indicating a potential downside of 4.48%. Given Deere & Company's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Deere & Company is more favorable than Caterpillar.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Deere & Company	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53
Caterpillar	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Which has better earnings and valuation, DE or CAT?

Caterpillar has higher revenue and earnings than Deere & Company. Deere & Company is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Caterpillar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Deere & Company	$57.54B	1.81	$10.17B	$33.22	11.28
Caterpillar	$67.06B	2.47	$10.34B	$22.15	15.28

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of DE or CAT?

68.6% of Deere & Company shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.0% of Caterpillar shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Deere & Company shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Caterpillar shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer DE or CAT?

Caterpillar received 35 more outperform votes than Deere & Company when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.30% of users gave Deere & Company an outperform vote while only 62.49% of users gave Caterpillar an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Deere & Company	Outperform Votes 1148 65.30%	Underperform Votes 610 34.70%
Caterpillar	Outperform Votes 1183 62.49%	Underperform Votes 710 37.51%

Does the media refer more to DE or CAT?

In the previous week, Caterpillar had 1 more articles in the media than Deere & Company. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Caterpillar and 21 mentions for Deere & Company. Deere & Company's average media sentiment score of 0.55 beat Caterpillar's score of 0.49 indicating that Deere & Company is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Deere & Company	9 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Caterpillar	8 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is DE or CAT more profitable?

Caterpillar has a net margin of 16.79% compared to Deere & Company's net margin of 16.15%. Caterpillar's return on equity of 58.61% beat Deere & Company's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Deere & Company	16.15%	42.26%	9.14%
Caterpillar	16.79%	58.61%	12.95%

Summary

Caterpillar beats Deere & Company on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.