DE · Industrials(farm machinery & equipment) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-11-02
Deere & Co reported revenue of $45.7 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 4.9% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 12.0% in 2017 to 20.6%, and it earned 18.9% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $52.6 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 40.8% went to buybacks and 20.1% to dividends; the share count fell 16.0%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 7 Piotroski tests; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202545.7B+4.9% a year over 9 years
Operating margin20.6%gross margin —
Return on invested capital18.9%19.2% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay5.9B13.0% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA0.5×net debt 5.5B
Piotroski F-score4/7tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
020.0B40.0B60.0B80.0B
2017Revenue 29.7BOperating income 3.6B
2018Revenue 37.4BOperating income 4.5B
2019Revenue 39.3BOperating income 4.4B
2020Revenue 35.5BOperating income 4.3B
2020
2021Revenue 44.0BOperating income 8.0B
2022Revenue 52.6BOperating income 9.5B
2023Revenue 61.3BOperating income 13.0B
2024Revenue 51.7BOperating income 9.0B
2025Revenue 45.7BOperating income 9.4B
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-4.6%
—
+4.9%
Operating income
-0.3%
—
+11.4%
Net income
-11.0%
—
+9.8%
Earnings per share
-7.4%
—
+12.0%
Free cash flow per share
+24.5%
—
+18.3%
Dividend per share
+13.9%
—
+11.6%
Shares
-3.9%
—
-1.9%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 10.3%
0.0%10.0%20.0%30.0%
2017Return on invested capital 7.0%
2018Return on invested capital 6.7%
2019Return on invested capital 8.4%
2020Return on invested capital 5.7%
2020
2021Return on invested capital 10.1%
2022Return on invested capital 22.6%
2023Return on invested capital 25.4%
2024Return on invested capital 19.2%
2025Return on invested capital 18.9%
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Economic profit
-2.5B02.5B5.0B7.5B
2017Economic profit -1.2B
2018Economic profit -1.4B
2019Economic profit -794.6M
2020Economic profit -2.5B
2020
2021Economic profit -146.4M
2022Economic profit 4.0B
2023Economic profit 6.0B
2024Economic profit 3.2B
2025Economic profit 3.4B
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
(return on capital − cost of capital) × capital invested: the profit left after paying for the money used. Today's cost of capital is applied to every year, since a past one cannot be rebuilt honestly.
Return on equity
19.4%
Return on assets
4.7%
Asset turnover
0.43×
Research & development
5.1% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
10.2% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
05.0B10.0B15.0B
2017Net income 2.2BFree cash flow 1.6BAfter stock-based pay 1.5B
2018Net income 2.4BFree cash flow 926.0MAfter stock-based pay 842.0M
2019Net income 3.3BFree cash flow 2.3BAfter stock-based pay 2.2B
2020Net income 2.8BFree cash flow 6.7BAfter stock-based pay 6.6B
2020
2021Net income 6.0BFree cash flow 6.9BAfter stock-based pay 6.8B
2022Net income 7.1BFree cash flow 3.6BAfter stock-based pay 3.5B
2023Net income 10.2BFree cash flow 7.1BAfter stock-based pay 7.0B
2024Net income 7.1BFree cash flow 7.6BAfter stock-based pay 7.4B
2025Net income 5.0BFree cash flow 6.1BAfter stock-based pay 5.9B
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2025
52.6B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 19%9.9B
Acquisitions 12%6.5B
Dividends 20%10.6B
Share buybacks 41%21.5B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 8%4.1B
Over the same years it paid 971.0M in stock. The share count fell 16.0%. 20.5B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$10.00$20.00$30.00$40.00
2017Earnings per share $6.68Free cash flow per share $4.95Dividend per share $2.36
2018Earnings per share $7.23Free cash flow per share $2.83Dividend per share $2.46
2019Earnings per share $10.15Free cash flow per share $7.15Dividend per share $2.94
2020Earnings per share $8.69Free cash flow per share $21.05Dividend per share $3.02
2020
2021Earnings per share $18.99Free cash flow per share $21.90Dividend per share $3.31
2022Earnings per share $23.28Free cash flow per share $11.64Dividend per share $4.29
2023Earnings per share $34.63Free cash flow per share $24.15Dividend per share $4.86
2024Earnings per share $25.62Free cash flow per share $27.39Dividend per share $5.79
2025Earnings per share $18.50Free cash flow per share $22.45Dividend per share $6.33
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
260.0M280.0M300.0M320.0M340.0M
2017Diluted shares 323.3M
2018Diluted shares 327.3M
2019Diluted shares 320.6M
2020Diluted shares 316.6M
2020
2021Diluted shares 314.0M
2022Diluted shares 306.3M
2023Diluted shares 293.6M
2024Diluted shares 277.1M
2025Diluted shares 271.7M
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
010.0B20.0B30.0B40.0B
2017Net debt 16.6B
2018Net debt 23.3B
2019Net debt 26.4B
2020Net debt 34.2B
2020
2021Net debt 35.8B
2022Net debt 7.8B
2023Net debt 10.5B
2024Net debt 6.2B
2025Net debt 5.5B
2017201820192020202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
0.5×
Interest coverage
3× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 7 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✕Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellfailed
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Capital spending (1,360M) is well below depreciation (2,229M).
Benign
Mature assets, or a business that has become less capital-intensive.
Worrying
Under-investing: today's profit is being held up by consuming tomorrow's capacity.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
Value per share, with these assumptions$334.27discounted at 10.3% a year · 47% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
18.1×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
8.3×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
2.1×
Free cash flow yield
6.5%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today50.6B
Everything after, today45.7B
The whole business96.3B
Minus net debt-5.5B
What belongs to shareholders90.8B
Divided among 271.7M shares: <strong>$334.27</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
02.5B5.0B7.5B10.0B
2017Reported 1.5B
2018Reported 842.0M
2019Reported 2.2B
2020Reported 6.6B
2020
2021Reported 6.8B
2022Reported 3.5B
2023Reported 7.0B
2024Reported 7.4B
2025Reported 5.9B
2026Projected 7.9B
2027Projected 8.0B
2028Projected 8.1B
2029Projected 8.2B
2030Projected 8.3B
2031Projected 8.5B
2032Projected 8.6B
2033Projected 8.8B
2034Projected 9.0B
2035Projected 9.3B
2017201920202022202420262028203020322034
Year by year
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
Revenue
46.1B
46.7B
47.3B
48.0B
48.8B
49.7B
50.7B
51.8B
53.0B
54.3B
Growth
1.0%
1.2%
1.3%
1.5%
1.7%
1.8%
2.0%
2.2%
2.3%
2.5%
Cash margin
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
17.1%
Free cash flow
7.9B
8.0B
8.1B
8.2B
8.3B
8.5B
8.6B
8.8B
9.0B
9.3B
Worth today
7.1B
6.5B
6.0B
5.5B
5.1B
4.7B
4.4B
4.0B
3.7B
3.5B
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
9.3%
345
364
386
411
440
9.8%
323
340
358
380
404
10.3%
304
318
334
352
373
10.8%
287
299
313
329
347
11.3%
271
282
294
308
324
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
-3.0%
-1.0%
1.0%
3.0%
5.0%
13.7%
238
259
283
308
335
15.3%
259
283
308
336
366
17.1%
281
306
334
364
397
18.8%
302
330
360
393
428
20.5%
323
353
386
421
459
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.6%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$253.69
Median$335.14
90th percentile$453.19
$300.00$400.00$500.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$288.32</b> and <b>$389.00</b>; one in ten below $253.69, one in ten above $453.19.
Does the long run make sense?
8.8×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 8.8 times that year's EBITDA.
Free growthIn year 10 free cash flow is at or above after-tax operating profit, yet the model grows 2.5% forever. Growth needs reinvestment; this assumes it comes for free, which flatters the terminal value.
47%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 13.18% × (1 − 20.1%) = <strong>10.53%</strong>.
Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>10.30%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.