DEERE's Monster 20% BUYBACK

And yet another Long-term reason to like DEERE (DE)...

John Deere announced plans today to buy back another $5 BILLION worth of company stock.

This $5 BILLION stock buyback program comes on top of its existing 40 million share buyback the company announced in May 2007. As of April 30th 2008, Deere still had about 23 million shares remaining to complete that first buyback. The company had about 430 million shares outstanding on April 30.

Given today's closing price near $82.50, $5 Billion is equivalent to a little over 60 million shares of DE stock. Including its 2007 authorized buyback, DE has committed to buy back 83 million company shares...or 19.3% of its Total FLOAT (the stock's SUPPLY/amount of outstanding stock shares).

This MASSive buyback reminds me of IBM's..which coincidentally hit a 52 week High today, closing at $129.50.

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Other Deere announcements:

* DE raised its dividend 12 cents to 28 cents a share (1.3% yield)

* Deere will invest approximately $35 million to increase manufacturing capacity by 30% for combine harvesting systems produced at the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois.

Data Courtesy: Bloomberg
Full Disclosure: I own shares of DE and IBM.