Deere & Company DE

Competitive advantage analysis · industrials

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
72/100
Moderate

About Deere & Company

Deere & Company engages in the manufacture and distribution of various equipment worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Production and Precision Agriculture, Small Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Production and Precision Agriculture segment provides four-wheel-drive track and row crop tractors, harvesters, cotton pickers and strippers, sugarcane harvesters and loaders, soil preparation, tillage, seeding, and … Full DE analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Consistently Above Peers Gross margin at 36.5% (top 4%) and operating margin at 18.8% (top 4%) indicate strong pricing power.
  • Cost Leadership Position Operating margin at 95.7th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.

Key risks

  • Elevated Debt Risk Debt serviceability is weak (score 0.36), raising refinancing risk.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

Upgrade to unlock the signals and evidence behind each defense.

Premium access

Unlock full defense analysis

Get key signals, strengths, and risks for every moat dimension.

Upgrade to Premium Unlock all moat defenses and evidence.

Pricing Power

Strong
80

Where DE ranks in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery

Deere & Company ranks #3 of 29 scored companies in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery by moat score — the top 10%. The widest moat in the group is Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) at 80/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near DE in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery
# Company Moat score Rating
1 Caterpillar, Inc. CAT 80/100 Strong
2 Alamo Group, Inc. ALG 73/100 Moderate
3 Deere & Company DE 72/100 Moderate
4 Lindsay Corporation LNN 68/100 Moderate
5 Gencor Industries, Inc. GENC 67/100 Moderate
6 Blue Bird Corporation BLBD 67/100 Moderate
7 Oshkosh Corporation (Holding Co OSK 66/100 Moderate
8 CNH Industrial N.V. CNH 65/100 Moderate
9 PACCAR Inc. PCAR 65/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How DE scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 80 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 89 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 62 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 64 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 58 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 80 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding DE's moat

What is Deere & Company's moat score?

Deere & Company (DE) scores 72 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #3 of 29 scored companies in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery, the top 10%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 28 companies in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (89/100) and its weakest is Resilience (58/100).

How does Deere & Company compare with other Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery companies?

Deere & Company ranks #3 of 29 scored companies in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery by moat score. The widest moat in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery is Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) at 80/100. The companies ranked closest are Alamo Group, Inc. (ALG) at 73 just above it and Lindsay Corporation (LNN) at 68 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 28 companies in Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Deere & Company scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Deere & Company?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and DE scores: Pricing Power (80), Cost Advantage (89), Customer Stickiness (62), Capital Efficiency (64), Resilience (58), Scale & Market Position (80). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

Send Feedback
Please select a category.
0/1000