Deere & Company (DE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. I'm John May, Chairman and CEO of Deere & Company. It's my privilege to welcome you to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The agenda you see on the screen sets out the order in which we'll proceed as well as the rules of conduct for the meeting. Our meeting concludes with a general discussion during which we'll welcome your comments. We'll do our best to answer as many questions as possible in the time allowed. The agenda is available on the meeting website as are the rules of conduct, proxy statement and annual report. This morning, I'd like to recap John Deere's recent performance and some of the significant updates we made to our strategy and operations. Then we'll look ahead to 2021 and beyond. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created enormous challenges. It had to say the least, a dramatic effect on our employees, operations and customers around the world. It was one of the most consequential years in Deere's 184-year history. Our first priority and continues to be protecting the health, safety and overall welfare of our employees. Our second priority was delivering on our commitment to our customers, meeting their needs with the most advanced equipment and most responsive service. I'm proud to say we had a good deal of success on both accounts. The company also launched a new business strategy and operating model to produce even better outcomes for our customers, employees and investors. Around the world, governments designated our ag and construction businesses essential to helping secure the world's food supply and meet vital infrastructure needs. At the same time, we proactively implemented aggressive health and safety measures. We provided employees health screenings, enhanced personal protective equipment and staggered production schedules. By safeguarding our employees, we were able to keep our operations running and our people working with relatively minor interruptions. And we kept new equipment and parts flowing to our customers during the critical planting and harvesting seasons. The pandemic, in fact, drove increased adoption of technology and tools that make up our digital ecosystem. For example, the number of remote diagnostic sessions between customers and dealers more than doubled last year. Those are the interactions in which our dealers can assess the condition of our customers' equipment. And in some cases, dealers can actually service the equipment in a virtual environment. Our financial services business also played a critical role supporting dealers and customers during the pandemic. It offered ongoing and flexible financing arrangements when uncertainty was highest. Only by protecting our workforce could we deliver on our commitment to our customers and fulfill our role as an essential business. In my 23 years with Deere, I've never been prouder of the way our dedicated team of employees, dealers and suppliers worked together to meet this challenge and fulfill our central rule. To them all, we express a heartfelt thanks. 2020 was also a year which Deere delivered strong financial performance. This was a result of excellent execution by our global teams. Deere achieved net income of $2.75 billion on net sales of over $31 billion, while maintaining a healthy balance sheet. Operating profit for our largest operation, Ag & Turf, increased to just under $3 billion despite lower sales. Technology adoption continued in 2020. We also saw higher demand for small equipment. The Construction & Forestry division, which accounted for roughly 30% of our sales, remains solidly profitable, aided by sales of roadbuilding and compact construction equipment. Our Financial Services business again made a substantial contribution to our results, accounting for over 20% of our profits. It provided access to credit to customers throughout the pandemic. Looking ahead, we're optimistic about 2021. Conditions in the farm economy are improving, while demand is picking up in the construction and roadbuilding sectors as well. As reported last week, we started out the year on a strong financial note. Our latest forecast calls for sales and earnings to be higher in 2021. Another highlight of the past year was the many important new products brought to market with the latest technology and cutting-edge features. As an example, Deere's most advanced combines, the X-9 series, was introduced. The 2 X-9 models deliver an average of 45% more harvesting capacity while using 20% less fuel. We're also seeing great demand for our advanced 8-series row crop tractors. Precision agriculture made additional strides as more customers embraced its sustainability and productivity-enhancing benefits. The use of technology to drive more precision, speed and accuracy grew again in 2020. For Construction & Forestry, our new updated construction equipment included a line of utility loaders that offer improved comfort and performance as well as technology solutions to automate jobs such as grading. Our road building unit introduced new products, including 2 large milling machines and made further improvements to its highly regarded cold milling process model that are already delivering benefits. The goal for our smart industrial strategy is to accelerate the integration of technology with our comprehensive product lineup. The strategy is designed to deliver intelligent, connected machines and applications that revolutionize how our customers work in both agriculture and construction. This focus on what we're terming production systems helps us understand our customers' operations on a deeper level, and it allows us to deliver solutions that account for each decision and job required to produce a crop or complete a project. In addition, we created a Chief Technology Officer role and consolidated multiple groups focused on the development of our tech stack. The stack enhances our ability to rapidly develop technologies and bring new solutions to market across our portfolio. Deere's tech stack represents the full set of components required to deliver the next generation of machines and services to our customers. Our technology development efforts are driven by a single overarching goal: unlocking customer economic value. This refers to how we can help customers increase productivity, enhance profitability and improve sustainability across each step of their operation. Our customer support and aftermarket capabilities were also combined into a new life cycle solutions unit. It's an area that encompasses parts, components, upgrades and for our dealers, maintenance and repair service. When customers buy from John Deere, they expect and deserve to be supported the entire time they own a product, the full life cycle. This is increasingly important as our machines are more connected and technologically advanced. We see big opportunities to better serve our customers over the entire life of our products. Finally, by adopting a more disciplined approach for capital allocation, another part of our smart industrial effort, Deere will be one of the businesses most aligned with its strategy. The company's smart industrial strategy holds the key to delivering differentiated value for our customers. It also will help grow our leadership in precision technologies and provide meaningful and rewarding opportunities for employees. Our strategy is also designed to help the company achieve higher levels of growth and more consistent financial performance. We've also designed a more nimble company with higher degrees of empowerment and even more opportunities for our employees. We're confident these changes will allow us to respond to changing market conditions with greater speed, effectiveness and decisiveness. They're making Deere a more formidable competitor, a better investment and a company capable of producing value for years to come. In addition, these changes will allow the company to fulfill its higher purpose of running in a manner that helps the lives of those we serve leap forward. On behalf of the company's management and Board of Directors, I'd like to thank our shareholders and many friends for their loyalty and support. At this time, I would like to introduce the other directors who are standing for reelection and subject to the vote of the shareholders will serve you in directing the affairs of the company next year. They are Tamara A. Erwin, Executive Vice President and Group CEO of Verizon Business Group. Alan C. Heuberger, Senior Manager, BMGI. Charles O. Holliday Jr., Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell. Dipak C. Jain, President, China, Europe International Business School; Michael O. Johanns, retired United States Senator from Nebraska and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Clayton M. Jones, retired Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Collins, Inc. Gregory R. Page, Chairman of Corteva, Inc. Sherry M. Smith, former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Supervalu Inc. Dmitri L. Stockton, retired Special Advisor to the Chairman and Senior Vice President of General Electric Company and Former Chairman, President and CEO of GE Asset Management, Inc. Sheila G. Talton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Gray Matter Analytics. Before proceeding, I have good news for our shareholders. The Board of Directors earlier today approved an increase in the quarterly dividend on Deere stock to $0.90 per share payable on May 10. It's an increase of $0.14 per share or 18%. The new rate is a reflection of Deere's recent strong performance, and it shows our confidence in the company's future direction. Now to the business of the meeting. I have an affidavit of the Corporate Secretary, stating that the notice of this meeting and the proxy statement were mailed to all who were shareholders on the record date for this meeting. The inspectors of election for this meeting are David Giulia and Brent Norwood, Deere & Company Investor Relations. And Greg Malatia, representing Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., independent inspector of election. They have advised me that based on the proxies received up to 5 p.m. yesterday afternoon, 270,355,219 shares or not less than 85.98% of the shares entitled to vote are represented here in person or by proxy. Therefore, a quorum is present, and it is my pleasure to hereby officially call the meeting to order. I would like to thank the shareholders for their outstanding response to our request for proxy. A list of shareholders has been available for inspection by any shareholder for 10 days and will remain available until the close of the meeting. Our first official business this morning is the election of the directors. The persons recommended by the Board's Corporate Governance Committee and nominated by the Board of Directors were listed in the proxy statement and are as follows in alphabetical order: Tamara A. Erwin, Alan C. Heuberger, Charles O. Holliday Jr., Dipak C. Jain, Michael O. Johanns, Clayton M. Jones, John C. May, Gregory R. Page, Sherry M. Smith, Dmitri L. Stockton and Sheila G. Talton. The polls have been open for voting on these nominees since January 8, 2021, when the mailing of the proxy statements begin. As indicated in the proxy statement under the company's bylaws, notice of intent to nominate additional persons for election to the Board of Directors must be received by the secretary of the company not less than 90 nor more than 120 days before the shareholder meeting. We have not received notice of any additional nominees. Next, as indicated in Item 2 in the proxy statement, a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation is submitted for shareholder vote. The Board recommends a vote to approve the nonbinding advisory resolution on executive compensation. Next, as indicated, Item 3, the Audit Review Committee has approved the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm to audit Deere's financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting for the 2021 fiscal year. The Audit Review Committee and the Board are requesting that shareholders ratify this appointment. Shareholder approval to ratify the appointment requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting. The Board recommends a vote to ratify the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm. No further items have been submitted pursuant to the company's bylaws. Therefore, I declare the nominations and proposals to be voted on closed. And we will now proceed with voting. As the proxy committee, Mr. Davies and I have conferred and intend to vote for the 11 director nominees listed in the proxy statement; for the nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation; for the ratification of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2021. If you have sent in a proxy card and wish your shares to be voted as indicated, it will not be necessary to cast a ballot at this time. However, if you have not voted or if you wish to change your vote, please follow the voting instructions on your screen. Again, the ballot for voting or changing your vote regarding directors Erwin, Heuberger, Holliday, Jain, Johanns, Jones, May, Page, Smith, Stockton and Talton. It is for voting or changing your vote regarding the nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation. The ballot is also for voting or changing your vote regarding the ratification of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Preliminary results of voting will be announced before the end of this meeting. The next order of business will be comments from the independent registered public accountants. Deloitte & Touche is engaged by the Audit Review Committee of the Board to conduct the annual audit of our financial statements and our effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. And their representative with us today is Mr. Doug Alkema, Deloitte lead client service partner for the Deere & Company audit. Mr. Alkema will now make his statement.

We've conducted our audit of the financial statements of Deere & Company and subsidiaries and under the effectiveness of the company's internal control of our financial reporting. Our opinion dated December 17, 2020, is included in the company's 2020 annual report which was made available to the shareholders in advance of this meeting. Our opinion contains no qualifications or exceptions. Scope of our audit was designed by us to meet the requirements of the standards of the public company accounting oversight board and it was reviewed in advance with the audit review committee of the Board of Directors. It included tests of the accounting records at all significant company locations. No restrictions were placed on the scope of our audit, and we had full access to and the cooperation of the Board of Directors, management and the financial staff.

Let's pause now for a brief video presentation. [Presentation]

Before we have the discussion period, we will hear the preliminary report from the inspectors of voting. The preliminary report is based on all proxies returned as of 5 p.m. yesterday. After the meeting, the inspectors will count any additional proxies we received up to the time the polls close. The polls will close upon adjournment of this meeting or at 11 a.m., whichever is later. The final report of the inspectors will be included in the records of the meeting and will appear in the Form 8-K filing within 4 days of the votes being finalized. Mr. Greg Malatia, executive -- the account executive representing Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., independent inspector of election, will now give the preliminary report.

Mr. Chairman, we report that subject to final validation, the nominees for director included in the proxy statement received not less than 220,496,312 votes representing 93% of the votes cast. There were 221,926,337 votes cast in favor of the approval of the John Deere 2021 equity and incentive plan, representing 93.6% of the votes cast. There were 257,647,795 votes cast in favor of the ratification with Deloitte & Touche LLP as Deere's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2021, representing 95.2% of the votes cast.

Thank you, Mr. Malatia. Based on your report, I declare the nominees of the Board named in the proxy statement to be elected as directors. The nonbinding advisory vote to approve executive compensation has passed. The ratification of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm has passed. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I would be pleased to answer questions from any shareholder related to the business of the company or the interest of other shareholders. I am able to fully discuss issues pertaining to our business and welcome your questions. If you wish to ask a question, please follow the question instructions on the screen. In your electronic transmission, include your name, place of residence and confirm you are a shareholder. I will now open the line for questions.

All right. We see some questions coming in. The first question that I've received is, how is Deere improving its ability to deal with customers locally? And this is a great question, and it really relates to how did we handle customers during the pandemic when, in most cases, we didn't have the ability to have dealers on-site early on and working side-by-side with our customers to address their service needs. What we did was we leveraged a lot of our technology tools. A lot of the tools that we talk about as part of our new smart industrial strategy, where we've created this new tech stack that has lots of new sensors, lots of new software, telematics capabilities, the abilities to talk to machines from remote locations and to monitor machines from remote locations. We were able during COVID, and we continue to leverage that tech stack and connect directly to our customers' machines, identify, in some cases, the particular issue they're having before the customer knows they're having an issue with a remote expert alert code that would be sent to us and the dealer. And then we work with the customer to get the right parts and service they need to fix the machines. We also have the ability to go onboard the machine from an offboard location and make adjustments to the settings on the machine in order to make sure our customers are getting the most out of their machines and they're up and running when they need the equipment most. The last area I'd like to comment because a lot of times, we talk about connection with the customer, and we referenced the hardware that the customers are using. What's also very critical is connecting with our JDF customers. During COVID, and we continue to experience this, we'll have several customers that because of business disruptions that they've experienced, whether their jobs have been delayed or canceled or their end customer has a difficult time paying for their services, JDF works aggressively with those customers to come up with a very tailored solution that helps them get through the difficult times their business is experiencing. So those would be a few examples of how we're helping our customers in this environment. Great question, thank you. Next question that came in is, will you increase research and development going forward? And that's a new strategy that we call the smart industrial strategy. There's 3 components of that strategy. One is we reorg customers' production systems. Focus on how our customers work, how they do the jobs they do. We also created this new technology stack where we've centralized all of our technology which enables us to more efficiently design technology but more quickly share it across all of our product lines. And finally, we set up a new organization, a new life cycle organization that's going to help make sure our customers are served better and receive the parts and service they need them when they need them. You're going to see us focus more dollars of our R&D into that tech stack. Because where we see the biggest differentiator where we can unlock more value for our customers, ultimately making our customers more profitable, more productive and do the jobs they do in a more sustainable way, we're going to make sure we invest those very valuable R&D dollars to deliver those solutions to our customers. Those solutions could come in the form of equipment. They could come in the form of software or they could come in the form of our operation system, which connects them with their trusted advisers. So we're really excited about the future, this new organization that we've developed. This new smart industrial strategy is going to allow us to move faster and focus on the very specific needs where our customers need help. So great question. Thank you. The third question that came in is, how has Deere managed its balance sheet and liquidity position through the last year? That's an excellent question, and it actually triggers a very point in time. And that was in March last year when COVID was hitting hard globally, and we saw markets start to shut down, businesses shut down, countries shut down and that was a very uncertain time for Deere as well as all of our competitors and many other companies in the world. We quickly went to the markets to raise capital to make sure that we had enough cash available to continue to pay our employees if we experience a major disruption, continue to pay our suppliers to get the parts we need and allow us a buffer in order to get our operations back up and running. While we had very few operations that actually went down in the near term, it was a really, really good decision of management to make sure we had that buffer, we had that strong cash position in order to weather any storm that we would experience during COVID. Now as our operations continue to function, we kept our operations open for most parts of the world and we've also been able to continue to generate a very strong cash position. And Ryan, our CFO, highlighted that during our last quarterly call. Thank you. Next question, how would an infrastructure plan impact Deere? This would be great, not just for Deere. It would be great for our competitors. It would be great for our dealers, and it would be great for our customers. Our roads, our bridges, our highways need to be modernized. And funds dedicated at modernizing those very critical systems that not only flow people but also ship goods across our country would be a big benefit to our economy. It would mean more jobs to complete the work of these projects. But in the end, how would it specifically impact Deere? We would certainly see more demand on our products and our dealers as well. So an infrastructure plan that's organized and it really quickly goes to market would be very good for our customers, our competitors and for John Deere. Thank you. Next question is, how does Deere use robotics? And will it increase over time? I love this question because prior to becoming Chairman and CEO, I was focused on developing our Precision Ag strategy. And in that Precision Ag strategy, we talked about 3 things. We talked about making sure machines were always up and running. Use technology to make machines always up and running. The next thing we talked about was automate the jobs -- the jobs and the decisions that our customers do. Take the decisions out of their hands and use technology to do the decision better for them. So again, ultimately, they're more productive, they're more profitable. And then thirdly was make sure machines are optimized and up and running when our customers need them. Robotics fits squarely into that automation part of our strategy. And we have several examples of -- by using technology, we've been able to automate a step that required a human to look at a screen and make a decision to actuate a machine. We're now doing it with advanced algorithms and robotics. One of the real highlight products that you're going to in the next couple of years is our product called See & Spray. See & Spray is a sprayer that has the ability to go through the field and differentiate between a healthy plant and a weed and by using computer vision, seeing the difference between the 2, identifying the weed, using an advanced algorithm to determine what sort of herbicide that weed needs and then use a robotic solution to apply herbicide to exactly meet the requirements of that weed. By doing so, we have the opportunity to reduce herbicide use by 80% to 90% in the industry. So robotics is not only going to have a big benefit for our customers. It's going to have a big benefit on the environment as well. Next question. How can Deere help ease labor cost and shortages for farmers? Wherever I travel around the world and whether I'm talking to customers, CNF customers or if I'm talking to Ag customers, to turf customers, to golf customers, to forestry customers, they all say their #1 challenge is access to labor. And I think 1 of the biggest things we can do to help out our customers and deal with those labor shortages, #1, make the machines as easy as possible to do and automate the machines, automate the machines where the operator is less -- the machine is less dependent on the operator making actual decisions. The machine itself is sensing and then it's actuating and performing the job better than the operator or farmer can in the cab. In the end, the benefit is you don't need the same level of labor, but you also do the job in a better way, a more profitable way, more productive way and a more sustainable way. Ultimately, you will see us transition to full autonomy, where operators won't be needed in the cab and the machines will operate completely by themselves. As a matter of fact, this year, we will have a fully autonomous tillage tool that we'll be testing throughout the United States to prove out the technology. Excellent question. Next question is, how does Deere compete in foreign markets? And what is the opportunity in emerging markets? So our global footprint is quite broad for all of our divisions. And whether it's Ag & Turf or it's Construction & Forestry, we compete in those markets where we have a business opportunity to serve, whether it's a farmer or a contractor, with the products and tools that we have. In some cases, we serve those markets by localizing manufacturing in order to customize and develop a very specific requirement, product requirement that, that customer may need. Or in other cases, we have the opportunity to import equipment and solutions into those markets to serve those customers. Global growth for John Deere has been a big part of our strategy, and you'll continue to see us focus on spanning our operations and bringing our technology, our solutions, our products, the customers around the world with, again, ultimately making a John Deere customer more profitable, more productive and do the jobs they do in a more sustainable way. We have time for 1 last question. And the question is, what are Deere's plans with regard to alternative power sources, such as electrification and hydrogen? Let me start first with electrification. And we have lots of use commercially applied today in our products. On the precision side, we have used electrification where we've replaced very traditional hydraulic systems or ground driven planting systems to use an electric motor to give much more precision, much more control to the machine in order to get even more exact seed rates, better spacing, better depth. When you think of electrification on our machines, think of more precise application. And that was 1 example I gave you; there are several examples across the entire enterprise. Another 1 I'd like to talk about is we've just launched an award-winning eIVT, which is an infinitely variable transmission that are in our tractors today, that not only act as the transmission for the vehicle, but they also offboard very valuable electricity that we can use now to power implements and it replaces hydraulic solutions. So those are only a couple examples. We, like all companies, are going to continue to leverage these technologies and look for ways to make sure that by leveraging these technologies, they do 2 things. One, they bring more precision to our customers, and they also have a very positive environmental impact. So with that, I'd like to express my sincere thanks for the many years of dedicated service given to John Deere by each retiree and active employee attending this virtual meeting, as well as the thousands who are not attending. Thanks to all shareholders who attended today. The Board of Directors will reconvene immediately following this meeting. I now declare this meeting adjourned. Thank you all for attending.