Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) stock rose 1.28% (As on November 22, 12:00:10 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company’s net income fell in both the fourth quarter and for the full year, but the results exceeded Wall Street’s estimates. The Moline-based equipment maker posted net income of $1.245 billion, for the fourth quarter, ended Oct. 27 and $7.1 billion for the fiscal year. Those results compared with net income of $2.369 billion, for 2023 fourth quarter, and with $10.166 billion, in fiscal 2023. The earnings report comes as Deere faces weakened demand for its products and its customers face high interest rates and other challenges.  The company’s earnings also come on the heels of deep job cuts that John Deere made this year across many of its major production facilities and other operations. The equipment maker has not publicly disclosed the total number of jobs eliminated. Net income was down 9% to $173 million, compared to $190 million a year ago. The decrease was due to a higher provision for credit losses, partially offset by income earned on higher average portfolio balances, a reduction in derivative valuation adjustment and lower selling and administrative costs.

DE in the fourth quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $4.55, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $3.87, according to the FactSet consensus. The company had reported the adjusted revenue decline of 28 percent to $11.143 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 24, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $9.199 billion. Production & Precision Agriculture sales fell 38% to $4.305 billion from $6.965 billion in the same quarter last year.  Small Agriculture & Turf posted a 25% decrease with sales of $2.306 billion compared with $3.094 billion a year ago. Construction & Forestry sales decreased 29% to $2.664 billion, down from $3.742 billion a year ago. Deere’s financial services division also saw lower fourth quarter results.

Looking ahead, Deere provided soft guidance for fiscal 2025 and projected net income to be in a range of $5 billion to $5.5 billion. FactSet expected $5.8 billion. That is a significant decrease compared to the $7.1 billion in net income it reported today for fiscal 2024.

For fiscal 2025, Deere also predicted continued declines in all its equipment division sales including a 15% decline in its Production and Precision Ag, a 10% decline in Small Ag and Turf, and a decline between 10-15% in Construction & Forestry.