Unease on the farm dims outlook for Deere in 2020

Deere & Co. is reporting an 8% drop in fourth-quarter profit and issuing a weak outlook for next year.

The company on Wednesday cited uncertainty from trade wars and other issues that have led farmers to pull back on machinery purchases.

Quarterly profits were $722 million, or $2.27 per share. Adjusted per-share earnings were $2.14, a penny better than expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

Adjusted revenue was $8.7 billion, also better than expected.

But that’s being overshadowed by Deere’s first profit outlook for 2020 of between $2.7 billion and $3.1 billion, which would be less than this year.