Deere Posts Loss, Equipment Sales Fall

MOLINE, Ill. (TheStreet) -- Deere(DE Quote), the maker of agricultural equipment, swung to a loss in the fourth quarter of $22.8 million, or 53 cents a share, from a year-earlier profit of $345 million, or 81 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, fourth-quarter earnings were $99 million, or 23 cents a share, Deere said Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimated fourth-quarter earnings of 3 cents a share.

Deere said total fourth-quarter sales fell 28% to $5.33 billion from $7.4 billion in the same period of 2008. Net sales for Deere's equipment operations were $4.73 billion, down from $6.73 billion last year.

Deere said 2010 net income is anticipated to be about $900 million. Analysts forecast 2010 earnings of $1.2 billion.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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