Sifting through countless of stocks in the Machinery industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Donaldson Company, Inc. or Deere & Company because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company

Donaldson Company, Inc. manufactures and sells filtration systems and replacement parts worldwide. The company operates through Mobile Solutions, Industrial Solutions, and Life Sciences segments. The Mobile Solutions segment provides replacement filters for air and liquid filtration applications, such as air filtration systems, fuel, lube and hydraulic systems, emissions systems and sensors, indicators, and monitoring systems. This segment sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the construction, mining, agriculture, and transportation markets; and to independent distributors, and OEM dealer networks. The Industrial Solutions segment offers dust, fume, and mist collectors; compressed air and industrial gasses purification systems; air inlet systems and filtration for power generation; ancillary components; replacement parts; performance monitoring and service; and hydraulic and lubricated rotating equipment applications, as well as gas and liquid filtration for industrial processes and connected services. It also sells aerospace and defense products comprising of air, fuel, lubrication and hydraulic filtration for fixed-wing and rotorcraft aerospace applications and ground defense vehicle and naval platforms. This segment sells its products to various distributors, OEMs, and end-users. The Life Sciences segment provides micro-environment gas and liquid filtration for food, beverage, and industrial processes; bioprocessing equipment that includes bioreactors and fermenters; and bioprocessing consumables, such as chromatography devices, reagents and filters, and polytetrafluoroethylene membrane-based products, as well as specialized air and gas filtration systems for applications, including hard disk drives, semi-conductor manufacturing and sensors, battery systems, and powertrain components to OEMs and various end-users. The company was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Deere & Company engages in the manufacture and distribution of various equipment worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Production and Precision Agriculture, Small Agriculture and Turf, Construction and Forestry, and Financial Services. The Production and Precision Agriculture segment provides large and mid-size tractors, combines, cotton pickers and strippers, sugarcane harvesters and loaders, soil preparation, tillage, seeding, and crop care equipment, as well as application equipment, including sprayers and nutrient management, soil preparation machinery for grain growers, and related attachments and service parts. The Small Agriculture and Turf segment offers rotary mowers, hay and forage equipment, forage harvesters, utility tractors, and related loaders and attachments; turf and utility equipment, including riding lawn, commercial mowing, and golf course equipment, and utility vehicles; and other outdoor power products, as well as implements for mowing, tilling, snow and debris handling, aerating, residential, commercial, golf, and sports turf care applications. The Construction and Forestry segment provides backhoe loaders, crawler dozers and loaders, four-wheel-drive loaders, track loaders, excavators, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, landscape and skid-steer loaders, scraper systems, milling machines, recyclers, slipform and asphalt pavers, surface miners, compactors, tandem, static rollers, mobile crushers and screens, mobile and stationary asphalt plants, log skidders and harvesters, log feller bunchers, and log loaders and forwarders; and road building and rehabilitation equipment. The Financial Services segment finances sales and leases agriculture and turf, and construction and forestry equipment. It also offers wholesale financing to dealers of the foregoing equipment; and extended equipment warranties, as well as finances retail revolving charge accounts. The company was founded in 1837 and is headquartered in Moline, Illinois.

Latest Machinery and Donaldson Company, Inc., Deere & Company Stock News

As of November 21, 2025, Donaldson Company, Inc. had a $10.2 billion market capitalization, compared to the Machinery median of $2.8 million. Donaldson Company, Inc.’s stock is up 30.2% in 2025, up 3.3% in the previous five trading days and up 16.5% in the past year.

Currently, Donaldson Company, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 28.7. Donaldson Company, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $3.7 billion with a 9.9% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 4.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.013 per share for the current fiscal year. Donaldson Company, Inc. currently has a 1.4% dividend yield.

As of November 21, 2025, Deere & Company had a $131.7 billion market cap, putting it in the 98th percentile of all stocks. Deere & Company’s stock is up 15% in 2025, up 2.4% in the previous five trading days and up 21.78% in the past year.

Currently, Deere & Company’s price-earnings ratio is 25.5. Deere & Company’s trailing 12-month revenue is $44.3 billion with a 11.8% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -8.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $18.410 per share for the current fiscal year. Deere & Company currently has a 1.3% dividend yield.

How We Compare Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Donaldson Company, Inc.	DCI	D
Deere & Company	DE	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Donaldson Company, Inc. has a Value Score of 28, which is Expensive. Deere & Company has a Value Score of 23, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Donaldson Company, Inc. or Deere & Company has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Donaldson Company, Inc. or Deere & Company is the better investment when it comes to value.

Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Donaldson Company, Inc.	DCI	A
Deere & Company	DE	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Donaldson Company, Inc. has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong. Deere & Company has a Growth Score of 81, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Donaldson Company, Inc.	DCI	B
Deere & Company	DE	B

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Donaldson Company, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 70, which is Strong. Deere & Company has a Momentum Score of 64, which is Strong.

The Momentum Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Momentum Grade breakdown above, both Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company have a grade of B. For those who focus solely on a company’s momentum, further research will need to be conducted into both companies to see if they fit your individual needs as an investor.

Other Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company Grades

In addition to Growth, Value and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Donaldson Company, Inc. or Deere & Company Stock?

Overall, Donaldson Company, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 28, Growth Score of 100 and Momentum Score of 70.

Deere & Company stock has a Value Score of 23, Growth Score of 81 and Momentum Score of 64.

Comparing Donaldson Company, Inc. and Deere & Company’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.