Agricultural and construction machinery company Deere (NYSE:DE) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q2 CY2026, with sales up 4.9% year on year to $12.61 billion. Its GAAP profit of $5.10 per share was 8.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Deere (DE) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $12.61 billion vs analyst estimates of $12.43 billion (4.9% year-on-year growth, 1.4% beat)
- EPS (GAAP): $5.10 vs analyst estimates of $4.71 (8.3% beat)
- Operating Margin: 14.7%, up from 13% in the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $156.7 billion
Company Overview
Revolutionizing agriculture with the first self-polishing cast-steel plow in the 1800s, Deere (NYSE:DE) manufactures and distributes advanced agricultural, construction, forestry, and turf care equipment.
Revenue Growth
Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Regrettably, Deere’s sales grew at a sluggish 2.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmarks and is a rough starting point for our analysis.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss new industry trends or demand cycles. Deere’s performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 7.4% annually. 
We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its three most important segments: Production & Precision Agriculture
, Construction & Forestry
, and Small Agriculture & Turf, which are 31.7%, 28.7%, and 26.8% of revenue. Over the last two years, Deere’s Production & Precision Agriculture
(tractors, harvesters, tillage) and Construction & Forestry
(loaders, excavators, dump trucks) revenues averaged year-on-year declines of 10% and 1.2% while its Small Agriculture & Turf revenue (mowers and other small vehicles) averaged 5% growth. 
This quarter, Deere reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 4.9% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 1.4%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 6% over the next 12 months. Although this projection suggests its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Operating Margin
Deere has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for an industrials business, boasting an average operating margin of 17.1%. This result was particularly impressive because of its low gross margin, which is mostly a factor of what it sells and takes huge shifts to move meaningfully. Companies have more control over their operating margins, and it’s a show of well-managed operations if they’re high when gross margins are low.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Deere’s operating margin decreased by 3.8 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.
This quarter, Deere generated an operating margin profit margin of 14.7%, up 1.7 percentage points year on year. Since its gross margin expanded more than its operating margin, we can infer that leverage on its cost of sales was the primary driver behind the recently higher efficiency.
Earnings Per Share
We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.
Deere’s flat EPS over the last five years was below its 2.5% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded due to non-fundamental factors such as interest expenses and taxes.
Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.
Deere’s two-year annual EPS declines of 21.6% were bad and lower than its two-year revenue losses.
Diving into the nuances of Deere’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. While we mentioned earlier that Deere’s operating margin expanded this quarter, a two-year view shows its margin has declined. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.
In Q2, Deere reported EPS of $5.10, up from $4.75 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 8.3%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Deere’s full-year EPS to grow 14.7% from $18.00 to $20.64.
Key Takeaways from Deere’s Q2 Results
It was good to see Deere narrowly top analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, we think this was a decent quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The stock traded up 4% to $603.92 immediately after reporting.
Deere put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).