Harding Loevner, an investment management firm, published its “Global Equity Fund” first-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The Global Equity Composite fell 12.4% gross of fees, well beyond the 5.3% decline of the MSCI All Country World Index. The portfolio’s concentration in expensive stocks, a hazard of its commitment to investing in the stocks of high-quality rapidly growing businesses, hurt relative performance in a quarter during which investors fled from richly priced companies. Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Harding Loevner Global Equity Fund mentioned Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1837, Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) is a Moline, Illinois-based agricultural machinery manufacturing company with a $100.6 billion market capitalization. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) delivered a -3.97% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -2.55%. The stock closed at $329.27 per share on June 21, 2022.
Here is what Harding Loevner Global Equity Fund has to say about Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“John Deere’s (NYSE:DE) newest tractor, the 8R, can operate autonomously 24 hours a day, controlled by the farmer via mobile app, with full data download of crop specifications and field analysis available via the cloud. Another example of how automation is reaching deeply into traditional manufactured products is John Deere. After 185 years in business, the iconic farming equipment maker has turned the tractor into a platform for software and service revenues. Deere’s newest model, the 8R, can operate autonomously 24 hours a day, controlled by the farmer via mobile app, with full data download of crop specifications and field analysis available via the cloud.
Revenue comes from both the initial capital outlay and monthly subscription fees. During a recent call, Deere’s CEO John May emphasized a point we hear increasingly from leading industrial companies: “The need for autonomy is here today. The demand for the solution is real. We already have customers paying for autonomy.” CFO Ryan Campbell went a step further, suggesting that growth in such digitization technologies will be the primary driver of Deere’s future margin improvements, by increasing the recurring revenues attached to each piece of equipment it sells.”
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Our calculations show that Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) was in 66 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to 61 funds in the previous quarter. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) delivered a -22.03% return in the past 3 months.
In April 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
