Spare a thought for the farmer. It is the hundreds of thousands of them internationally that enable our fashionable financial system to exist. And there are fewer of them doing it at the moment than ever. Within the 1700s, roughly 80% of the American inhabitants was farmers. Immediately, they signify lower than 2% of the inhabitants. But they feed a vastly bigger inhabitants than their historic counterparts.
Trendy know-how permits farmers to supply sufficient meals collectively to feed almost the entire 8 billion folks world wide. However the agricultural revolution is ongoing. And one among America’s oldest corporations is main the best way.
Picture supply: Getty Pictures.
Deere & Firm (NYSE: DE), higher identified colloquially as John Deere, turns 189 this 12 months, and it is nonetheless as a lot a pacesetter in agriculture because it was again when it was based in 1837. If there is a machine you want on a farm, from a driving garden mower to a tractor to a mix harvester, odds are good yow will discover one branded with the corporate’s iconic prancing stag emblem.
Newer additions to the corporate’s choices embody an entire suite of digital instruments, together with tools administration software program and satellite tv for pc imaging. However the firm is not stopping with the digitization of farming, it is introducing synthetic intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving as effectively.
First, let’s speak about pesticides and weed management. Previously, farmers needed to spray down complete fields with pesticides to kill weeds. It was costly and put numerous chemical compounds into the meals provide and the setting. However Deere’s new good sprayers use 36 cameras and machine studying to establish particular person weeds and robotically spray them individually.
The end result for the 1 million acres this know-how was examined on in 2023 was a 50% discount in water and chemical use, an 87% discount within the airborne drift of these chemical compounds, and a 93% discount in chemical runoff. The farmer saves cash on water and pesticides, and there are fewer chemical compounds within the setting. It is a win-win.
Deere already has an autonomous tractor in discipline testing, too.
With its 360-degree cameras and complex software program, the tractor can acknowledge and keep away from obstacles whereas being monitored remotely by the farmer, who’s freed as much as do different essential work across the farm.
Within the phrases of Deanna Kovar, Deere’s president of Worldwide Ag & Turf for Europe, Asia, and Africa, “All farmers must do is transport their tractor to the sector, get it set, get out of the cab, and use their cell phone to ‘swipe to farm.'”
Deere has all the time been a juggernaut within the agricultural trade, and on the monetary entrance, it is performing effectively regardless of a poor 2025. Over the 12 months, internet gross sales and income had been down 12%, and internet revenue was down 29%. The decline in revenue is probably going on account of the price of Deere’s analysis and growth operations, which have skyrocketed to $2.29 billion or 5.1% of gross sales over the previous 4 years.
Regardless of that, the corporate maintains a internet revenue margin of 11%. It additionally repeatedly will increase its dividend, which is up by 113% since 2020.
And for This fall 2025, the corporate noticed a substantial uptick in internet gross sales and income of 11%, indicating it is choosing up some steam going into 2026. And it’s nonetheless investing closely in its technological edge. It must.
There are slated to be 10 billion folks on the planet by 2050, and Deere initiatives {that a} 60%-70% improve in agricultural manufacturing can be wanted to feed all of them. This firm’s machines have been a farmer’s finest pal for nearly 200 years, and I predict they are going to proceed to be.
However extra environment friendly farming is unhealthy information for corporations like FMC(NYSE: FMC) that make the chemical compounds Deere’s tractors will guarantee farmers use much less of.
FMC can be an easy enterprise. It develops and produces pesticides, fungicides, and different farming chemical compounds used to guard crops. Nevertheless, whereas Deere’s newest outcomes confirmed a possible improve in momentum, FMC’s outcomes had been disastrous.
For Q3 2025, the corporate reported a income decline of 49% from simply over $1 billion to $542 million. Internet revenue went from $66 million in Q3 2024 to a $569 million loss in Q3 2025. Lastly, the corporate’s earnings per share fell from $0.52 in Q3 2024 to a lack of $4.52 per share in Q3 2025.
The corporate’s cash-flow steering is very grim. On the finish of 2024, its free money movement (FCF) was $614 million. For 2025, it is projecting a FCF lack of $100 million. And that is coming at a time when Deere is simply testing out the good sprayers that may reduce pesticide use in half.
Issues aren’t wanting nice for FMC, and I do not foresee the corporate’s lot enhancing anytime quickly. I’d skip it and have a look at Deere as a substitute.
Before you purchase inventory in Deere & Firm, contemplate this:
The Motley Idiot Inventory Advisor analyst crew simply recognized what they imagine are the 10 finest shares for buyers to purchase now… and Deere & Firm wasn’t one among them. The ten shares that made the reduce may produce monster returns within the coming years.
Take into account when Netflix made this listing on December 17, 2004… for those who invested $1,000 on the time of our suggestion, you’d have $474,578!* Or when Nvidia made this listing on April 15, 2005… for those who invested $1,000 on the time of our suggestion, you’d have $1,141,628!*
Now, it’s value noting Inventory Advisor’s complete common return is 955% — a market-crushing outperformance in comparison with 196% for the S&P 500. Do not miss the newest prime 10 listing, obtainable with Inventory Advisor, and be part of an investing neighborhood constructed by particular person buyers for particular person buyers.
*Inventory Advisor returns as of January 17, 2026.
James Hires has no place in any of the shares talked about. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Deere & Firm. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure coverage.
