Deere Leaps to 52-Week High

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Deere(DE Quote) shares gained more than 4% Monday and notched a new 52-week high.

Helping lift the stock Monday was, apparently, an upgrade from sell-side analyst Robert Wertheimer, of Morgan Stanley. He increased his rating on Deere shares to overweight from equal-weight, and his price target to $64 from $48, two days before the Moline, Illinois, farm-equipment maker is scheduled to report quarterly earnings.

Wertheimer attributed his Deere bullishness to what he sees as growing demand for farm equipment in the U.S. after a prolonged slump. He said that farmers are now adding acreage, "a secular phenomenon that is widely underestimated."

The huge corporate growers that dominate U.S. agriculture have added so much land to their already humongous domains, doubling their acreage over the last ten years, that these companies will need to acquire some 6,000 tractors annually to service it all, Wertheimer argued, citing "proprietary analysis" of the industry.

Sell Deere!: Against the Grain

The analyst added that a cyclical upswing may be more robust than many observers believe, especially in corn prices next year and in Brazil's agricultural business.

In late-morning trading Monday, Deere shares were changing hands at $52.85, up $2.02, or 4%. Early in the session the stock touched $53.59, marking a new 52-week high. Volume reached nearly 3 million shares; the average daily turnover is 5.6 million.