North American farm equipment dealers' level of optimism followed the deceleration of tractor and combine sales in July, but their outlook for the full year remained intact from previous months.
Farm equipment sales in western Canada remained robust through the second-quarter as one of John Deere’s largest retailers of ag machinery in the region, Cervus Equipment Corp., posted record revenues for the period.
Not only did CNH and AGCO see significant gains in revenues and net income during the second quarter ended June 30, 2013, but both farm equipment makers also saw healthy increases in margins that bolstered the companies’ forecasts for the remainder of the year and into 2014.
Deere & Co.’s third-quarter 2013 results easily surpassed analysts’ expectations as the world’s largest ag equipment maker posted a 26% increase in income on a 4% gain in net sales and revenues. At the same time, Deere said it expects a weaker fourth quarter in this fiscal year.
While Titan Machinery reported fiscal year first-quarter revenue increased 4.7% to $442 million vs. the same period last year, its revenue was approximately $50 million lower than the dealer’s initial guidance.
Rocky Mountain Equipment (RME), Case IH’s largest dealer group in western Canada, saw a healthy bump in both sales and earnings in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period a year earlier.
For the period ended March 31, Cervus Equipment Corp. (CVL), the publicly held John Deere dealership based in Calgary, reported its first-quarter revenue increased by 35.7% to $148.9 million from $109.8 million vs. the same period of 2012.
Deere & Co. saw another strong quarter, reporting on May 15 that its net income for the period ended April 30 was $1.084 billion compared with $1.056 billion for the same period last year, or up 2.7%. Through the first six months of its fiscal year, the company produced net income of $1.7 billion vs. $1.6 billion last year.
CNH Global turned in a solid performance for the first quarter of 2013, but the heavy equipment maker doesn’t expect the same results in terms of unit sales for the remainder of the year.
With strong first-quarter sales performances in North and South America, AGCO beat both top and bottom line estimates, improved its operating margins, but still fell short on profits.
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In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we take an initial look at the Dealer Business Outlook & Trends Report and what dealers are forecasting for 2025.