Deere & Company

Good morning, and welcome to the Deere and Company Third Quarter's Earnings Conference Call. Your lines have been placed on listen only until the question and answer session of today's conference. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Josh Jepson, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning. Also on the call today are Ryan Campbell, our Chief Financial Officer, Corey Reed, President of Production and Precision Ag, and Brent Norwood, Manager of Investor Communications. Today we'll take a closer look at Deere's third quarter earnings and spend some time talking about our markets and our current outlook for fiscal year 2020. After that, we'll respond to your questions. Please note, slides are available for the call this morning. They can be accessed at our website at johndeere.com slash earnings. First, a reminder, this call is being broadcast live on the Internet and recorded for future transmission and use by Deere and Company. Any other use, recording, or transmission of any portion of this copyrighted broadcast without the express written consent of Deere is strictly prohibited. Participants in the call, including the Q&A session, agree that their likeness and remarks in all media may be stored and used as part of the earnings call. This call includes forward-looking comments concerning the company's plans and projections for the future that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in the company's most recent Form 8K and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This call may include financial measures that are not in conformance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP. Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, is included in the release and posted on our website at johndeer.com slash earnings under quarterly earnings and events. I'll now turn the call over to Brent.

John Deere demonstrated strong execution in the third quarter, resulting in a 14.6% margin for the equipment operations and an increased net income forecast for the full year. Despite persistent uncertainty in large ag markets, profitability increased year-over-year for the division and take rates for precision technology improved markedly. Meanwhile, markets for our construction and forestry division slowed year-over-year but came in ahead of our forecast and showed progress towards right-sizing inventory levels. Now, let's take a closer look at our third quarter results beginning on slide three. Enterprise net sales and revenues were down 11% to $8.925 billion, while net sales for our equipment operations were down 12% to $7.859 billion. Net income attributable to Deere and Company was down 10% to $811 million or $2.57 per diluted share. In the quarter, the company recorded in both pre-tax and after-tax. In addition, the quarter's net income was unfavorably affected by discrete income tax adjustments, while the third quarter of 2019 had favorable discrete income tax adjustments. At this time, I'd like to welcome to the call Corey Reed, President of Production and Precision Ag, for a discussion of the division's results and changes to the recently announced operating model.