Fiscal period ending 2025-11-02 versus 2024-10-27
— view filing on EDGAR →
Deere's risk profile deteriorated materially across trade, technology, and credit dimensions, with $600M in disclosed 2025 tariff costs anchoring a broad-based worsening. Supply chain fragility deepened through rare earth sourcing exposure, USMCA uncertainty, and new warranty/recall risks, while the technology stack introduced compounding headwinds: cloud data concentration, AI competitive lag, and slower precision-ag adoption. Two eased items — removal of weather/disaster and legacy trade-conflict disclosures — reflect reorganization rather than resolved risk, and do not offset the weight of new concrete exposures.
13 company-specific
· 3 eased/removed
· 3 common-mode
Company-specific changes
New
New disclosure of material tariff impact: $600M incremental cost in FY2025, with ongoing exposure. Substantive operational and financial risk from trade policy escalation.
We face risks associated with international, national, and regional trade laws, regulations, and policies that could materially impair our profitability. International, national, and regional laws…
Revised
Shift to Mexico now subject to actual 2025 tariffs with uncertain USMCA exemption. New water scarcity risk disclosed. Concrete cost impact materialized.
OPERATIONAL AND MANUFACTURING RISKS Restructuring, rationalization, and relocation of manufacturing facilities may cause capacity constraints, inventory fluctuations, and other issues. The…
Revised
New disclosure of increased allowance for credit losses in 2025 due to elevated delinquencies and declining agriculture/turf market conditions, with warning of further increases.
Because the financial services segment provides financing for a significant portion of our sales worldwide, negative economic conditions in the financial industry could materially impact our…
Revised
Added specific 2025 disclosure: elevated used inventory impacted North America demand, reduced price realization, requiring inventory reduction actions.
Inability to accurately forecast customer demand for products and services, and to adequately manage inventory, could adversely affect our operating results. To ensure adequate inventory supply, we…
Revised
New specific risks disclosed: rare earth mineral sourcing from China, supplier financial instability, trade policy complexity affecting customs/logistics, R&D costs for alternatives.
Changes in the availability and price of certain raw materials, components, and whole goods have resulted and could result in disruptions to the supply chain causing production disruptions, increased…
New
New disclosure of warranty claims, recalls, and product liability risks with potential for significant costs, supply chain disruption, and brand harm.
From time to time our equipment fails to perform as expected and we have experienced, and may in the future experience, warranty claims, post-sale repairs and recalls, and other consequences. From…
Revised
Added specific 2025 impact disclosure: elevated Brazil rates, negative market impacts on agriculture/turf/construction products from elevated rates affecting customer borrowing costs and dealer inventory financing.
FINANCIAL RISKS Changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions, as well as changes in government banking, monetary and fiscal policies, could adversely affect our financials and our…
Revised
Revised language now explicitly discloses slower-than-expected customer adoption of precision technology and SaaS services, and infrastructure delays impacting benefit realization timelines—material operational headwinds.
STRATEGIC RISKS We may not realize the anticipated benefits of our Smart Industrial Operating Model and Leap Ambitions. Failure to realize the anticipated benefits of our Smart Industrial Operating…
Revised
Shift from hypothetical "if" to documented fact: dealers "have postponed" purchases, evidencing realized inventory headwinds affecting current sales.
We rely on a network of independent dealers to manage the distribution of our products and services. If our dealers are unsuccessful with their sales and business operations, it could have an adverse…
Revised
Added specific risks: acquired technologies may not be complementary, may not broaden market position or footprint, or enhance customer value delivery. Escalates integration risk beyond prior generic language.
We may not realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestitures, or these benefits may take longer to realize than expected. From time to time, we make strategic…
Revised
New disclosure of unionization risk beyond current agreements and potential for additional workforce unionization, escalating labor relations exposure.
Our business may be adversely affected by any disruptions caused by union activities. Many of our production and maintenance employees are represented by labor unions under various collective…
Revised
New disclosure of John Deere Operations Center storing substantial customer data in cloud; added reliance on third-party cloud infrastructure with explicit acknowledgment of uncontrolled risks and potential operational impairment.
CYBERSECURITY AND DIGITAL RISKS Security breaches and other disruptions to our information technology infrastructure could interfere with our operations and could compromise our information as well…
Revised
New regulatory risks added: autonomy systems, AI, drones, executive orders. Prior year disclosed $10M FCPA settlement; current year removes this specific disclosure, but expands compliance scope materially.
LEGAL AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE RISKS Our global operations are subject to complex and changing laws and regulations, the violation of which could expose us to potential liabilities, increased costs…
Eased / removed
Removed
Removal of detailed weather/natural disaster risk disclosure for agriculture equipment business. Suggests company no longer views this as material operational risk.
Unfavorable weather conditions or natural catastrophes that reduce agricultural production and demand for agriculture and turf equipment could directly and indirectly affect our business. The…
Removed
Removal of material RF/GPS and Starlink regulatory risk. Company no longer discloses dependency on frequency allocations or Starlink SATCOM partnership vulnerabilities.
We could be impacted by changes to or reallocation of radio frequency (RF) bands which could disrupt or degrade the reliability of our high precision augmented Global Positioning System (GPS) or…
Removed
Removal of detailed trade policy and tariff risks, including US-China trade conflict exposure, suggests material easing of previously disclosed geopolitical and trade uncertainties.
We may face risks associated with international, national, and regional trade laws, regulations, and policies, and government farm programs and policies which could significantly impair our…
Also disclosed — common-mode (Geopolitical macro uncertainty, AI regulatory compliance, Generative AI competition disruption)
Geopolitical macro uncertainty
Revised
New explicit focus on geopolitical risks and international trade impacts. Added language on government farm programs creating unequal competition for multinational companies, escalating trade/policy risk.
GEOPOLITICAL AND MACROECONOMIC RISKS Our financial results largely depend upon the agricultural market business cycle, as well as general economic conditions and outlook. Negative conditions in the…
AI regulatory compliance
Revised
New explicit risks added: slower-than-expected product adoption, AI integration challenges, data privacy/AI compliance requirements, RF spectrum/satellite dependency, and intellectual property protection needs.
The introduction of new products and technologies involves risk, and, from time to time, we may fail to realize their anticipated benefits. We design and manufacture products that incorporate…
Generative AI competition disruption
Revised
New competitive risk disclosed: inability to match competitors' AI advances could impact competitive position. Also expanded data storage risk via Operations Center and execution uncertainty added.
Technical or regulatory limitations may impact our ability to effectively implement automation, autonomy, and artificial intelligence solutions. We utilize and intend to expand our use of automation…