The Deere & Company Board of Directors has increased the quarterly dividend rate by 14 percent and proposed a 2-for-1 split of the company’s common stock.
The split, which would take the form of a stock dividend of one additional share for each share outstanding, requires shareholder approval at a special meeting set for November 14, 2007, at the company’s Moline, Illinois, headquarters. The increase in the quarterly dividend rate, from 44 cents to 50 cents per pre-split share, is payable November 1, 2007, to shareholders of record on September 28.
Since early 2004, Deere has increased the dividend rate on five occasions, by a total of 127 percent, and repurchased more than $3.5 billion of the company’s stock.
