Franklin Resources Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR)

Franklin Resources Inc. decreased its position in shares of The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR) by 76.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,914 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 31,459 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Timken were worth $708,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Timken by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,465,760 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $461,461,000 after purchasing an additional 26,973 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Timken by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,158,690 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $225,436,000 after purchasing an additional 320,354 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Timken by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,073,123 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $90,477,000 after acquiring an additional 5,970 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Timken by 418.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 882,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $62,959,000 after purchasing an additional 711,979 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Timken by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 783,560 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,928,000 after purchasing an additional 30,411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.08% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Philip D. Fracassa sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.50, for a total value of $407,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 90,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,379,091.50. The trade was a 5.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 8.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TKR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $70.00 price target (down from $90.00) on shares of Timken in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Timken from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $78.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Timken from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Timken from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Timken from $94.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.91.

Timken Trading Down 1.5 %

TKR opened at $61.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 3.07 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The Timken Company has a 12 month low of $56.20 and a 12 month high of $94.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.24, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $73.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.35.

Timken (NYSE:TKR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.08. Timken had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 7.71%. Sell-side analysts expect that The Timken Company will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Timken Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Timken’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.25%.

Timken Profile

The Timken Company designs, manufactures, and sells engineered bearings and industrial motion products, and related services in the United States and internationally. The company's Engineered Bearings segment provides various bearing products, including tapered, spherical, and cylindrical roller bearings; plain bearings, metal-polymer bearings, and rod end bearings; radial, angular, and precision ball bearings; thrust and specialty ball bearings; journal bearings; and housed or mounted bearings.