Deere Shrugs Off Baird Downgrade

Joel Elconin is the co-host of Benzinga's #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show.

Deere & Company DE shares are trading higher by $0.57 at $93.92 in Tuesday's session. After a brief decline off the open, it is adding to its impressive $3.89 gain from Friday's session. It rallied on Friday off a sizable Q2 beat.

The follow-through rally is taking place despite a downgrade at Baird, saying that the long thesis has "played out." As a result, the firm lowered the issue from Outperform to Neutral and lowered its price target from $102 to $98.

Along with a weak broad market, the downgrade instigated a lower open ($92.58 versus Friday's close of $93.35). However, it bottomed only $.08 lower at $92.50 and surpassed Friday's 52 week high ($93.54), reaching $94.24 before falling back to the $94 level.

The current high coincides with its February 2013 high of $94.17.

Friday's volume was way above it 20 day average of 2.55 as 8.55M shares changed hands. Tuesday's volume is above average as well, trading 2.7 shares so far, but not quite on pace to match Friday's monster volume.