Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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David Raso: Is there any colored €“ thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Feniger with Bank of America. Go ahead please. Your line is open.

Michael Feniger: Yes. Thanks for taking my question. Is there anyway to frame these pricing gains being able to look at how much is coming from the inflationary side and how much the higher rates are from tools and features? And are you seeing pricing just across the industry and players remain disciplined as they kind of roll through this year as inflation eases and we revert more to that normal environment. Thank you.

Brent Norwood: Hi Mike. Thanks for the question. With respect to pricing, I would €“ I think the historical trend would point to a normal environment of 2% to 3% pricing based on inflation and roughly maybe 3% to 4% based on additional features. Now, when we quote price realization in our press release, we are only quoting inflationary prices, right. We don’t quote the addition to average selling prices that come from those new features in precision ag that would typically fall in the mixed bar on our waterfall charts. And I think on a go-forward basis, the 3% to 4% is largely in line with what we would expect to continue going forward. With respect to industry discipline, we will play a wait and see approach how that plays out over the course of this year.

I think it will be largely dependent on the inventory levels that we see in large ag, North America large ag specifically. Right now, those continue to be pretty tight. And as long as they remain tight, there is not a lot of incentive for the industry itself to be undisciplined on price. But again, we will wait and see how that plays out as we progress through the year. Thanks Mike.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jamie Cook with Credit Suisse. Go ahead please. Your line is open.

Jamie Cook: Hi. Good morning. I guess just two questions. Back to C&F, I know you outlined 1.5 points due to sort of miscellaneous positive items. If you could just explain a little more what exactly that was? And obviously, the margins were strong in the quarter. Is there anything structural going on there that we should get more optimistic about how we think about construction margins over the longer term? Thank you.

Brent Norwood: So, with respect to the drivers of the C&F beat, I think there is a couple of things to unpack there. First, operationally, that division executed very well in the quarter and the order book remains really strong. Demand has really held up in that division for us. I would say that Wirtgen was exceptional in their performance in the first quarter. And of course, we have got a little extra price there. Jamie, you noted there were a couple of miscellaneous items. Those were around some FX hedging gains that we took primarily in the quarter. What I would tell you is that the Construction & Forestry division is one where we have been working to improve structural performance for the last couple of years. You have seen that with the Wirtgen acquisition we made 5 years ago as well as the decision we made last year to purchase out the €“ our JV partner in the Deere-Hitachi relationship.

I think those are things that will continue to deliver structural performance as we move forward, and it’s a division, we are really excited about the growth opportunities in.

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