Deere's Profit Outstrips Expectations, But Sales Miss

Deere & Co. on Friday posted quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations, but sales from the farming equipment maker fell short. Third-quarter earnings were $488.8 million, or $1.55 a share, compared with $511.6 million, or $1.53 a share, a year ago. Net sales from equipment operations came in at $5.86 billion, down from $6.84 billion in the same period last year. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 94 cents a share on sales of $6.04 billion. "John Deere's performance in the third quarter reflected the continuing impact of the global farm recession as well as difficult conditions in construction equipment markets," said Deere's Chief Executive Samuel Allen in a statement, but added that all of its businesses "remained profitable with the Agriculture & Turf division reporting higher operating profit than last year."