Deere earned $1.379bn in the quarter, and the division that builds its biggest tractors was the one that shrank

Two of Deere's three equipment segments grew this quarter. The one that did not is the one the company is best known for.

Deere reported net income of $1.379bn for the three months to 2 August, or $5.10 a share, against $1.289bn and $4.75 in the quarter ended 27 July last year. Worldwide net sales and revenues came to $12.608bn, up 5 percent. The nine-month picture is a different one, and the company prints it in the same table: revenues up 7 percent to $35.589bn, net income down 4 percent to $3.808bn, and earnings a share of $14.06 against $14.57.

Where the profit came from

Production and Precision Agriculture, the business that builds the large tractors and combines, sold $3,998m of equipment against $4,273m a year earlier, a fall of 6 percent, and its operating profit fell 9 percent to $527m. Everything else rose. Small Agriculture and Turf sales rose 12 percent to $3,383m and its operating profit rose 28 percent to $622m. Construction and Forestry sales rose 18 percent to $3,618m and its operating profit rose 84 percent, from $237m to $436m, taking that segment's operating margin from 7.7 percent to 12.1 percent. Financial Services earned $219m, up from $205m.

The quarter's improvement is therefore concentrated. Construction and Forestry alone added $199m of operating profit year over year, which is more than the whole group's net income moved.

The forecast, and the table under it

Deere now expects full-year net income of $4.75bn to $5.00bn. John C. May, the chairman and chief executive, said in the release that the company continues to believe 2026 will mark the bottom of the current agricultural equipment cycle. That is the company's view of its own market, and it sits directly above an industry outlook table that still forecasts large agricultural equipment sales in the United States and Canada down 15 to 20 percent for the year, South American tractors and combines down 15 to 20 percent, and Europe flat. On the construction side the same table has roadbuilding up about 10 percent and forestry down about 10 percent.

One line worth reading twice

Under the summary table the release says the company recorded tariff recoveries in the third quarter and first nine months of 2026 of $110 million and $382 million, and that the tariff impact for each segment is primarily included in the Production Costs category. The release does not say what a tariff recovery is. It does not say whether the figure is duty refunded, duty recovered through price, or something else, and no other line in the document defines it. Against a quarterly net income of $1.379bn the number is large enough to matter, so it is printed here as the company printed it, with no reading attached.