Stock Slumps After Deere & Co Reports Earnings

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- Demand in the global agricultural market helped to drive up the first-quarter 2008 net income of Deere & Co (NYSE:DE), the company announce on Wednesday.

Specifically, during the quarter that ended Jan 31, the company’s net income rose from $238.7 million in Q1 2007 to $369.1 million in Q1 2008; alternatively, it increased from $0.52 per share in Q1 2007 to $0.83 per share in Q1 2008.

Likewise, net sales and revenues increased 18 percent from a year ago, or $4.425 billion in Q1 2007 to $5.201 billion in Q1 2008.

"Advanced product offerings that help John Deere customers be more profitable and productive are supporting the company's financial performance and helping expand our global market presence," said CEO/Chairman Robert W. Lane in the company's statement.

Lane added the following comments to let investors know that the company is not solely dependent on the agricultural sector for future earnings:

"Further, benefiting from our ongoing actions to create a fundamentally more resilient, more successful business, Deere's non-agricultural operations remain on a profitable course in spite of weakening economic conditions in the United States."

The markets, however, appeared to be wary of the company’s future, sending its share price down from the previous close of $86.48 to $84.62 in Wednesday afternoon trading (2:23pm ET).

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate Lane's corporate history and non-corporate affiliations.

The Knowledge Map shows that in addition to leading Deere & Co, Lane also serves as a Director of two major corporations: General Electric Co and Verizon Communications Inc; he also has  membership with the Business Roundtable.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).

Click here for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.