Deere & Co. shares surged today after the company reported stronger first-quarter profit and projected increasing sales of agricultural equipment.
The Illinois-based company, which employs about 700 people in the Triangle, expects sales to rise 6 percent to 8 percent this year, despite "global economic conditions that remain stubbornly weak," CEO Samuel Allen said in a prepared statement.
Its shares rose $2.70 to close at $56.48. That was the biggest gain in nearly six months, Bloomberg News reported. The stock has climbed nearly 70 percent in the past year.
Net income for the three months that ended Jan. 31 rose 19 percent to $243.2 million. Revenue declined 6 percent to $4.84 billion.
Deere has been cutting costs and jobs after a decline in sales last year. Those job cuts included about 140 positions in Cary.
The company now employs more than 400 at a Fuquay-Varina factory that makes lawn mowers and other turf equipment, and nearly 300 at offices in Cary.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or