Principal Securities Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR)

Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,857 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Timken were worth $204,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in TKR. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Timken by 4.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,679,790 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $225,880,000 after purchasing an additional 107,350 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Timken by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,953,838 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $164,689,000 after buying an additional 66,208 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Timken by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 1,700,979 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $143,376,000 after acquiring an additional 434,800 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Timken by 0.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 649,952 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TKR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Timken from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Timken from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Timken from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Timken from $103.00 to $99.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Timken from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Timken presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Philip D. Fracassa sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.50, for a total transaction of $407,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 8.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Timken Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE TKR opened at $80.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.31. The company has a current ratio of 3.07, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The Timken Company has a 12-month low of $69.35 and a 12-month high of $94.71.

Timken (NYSE:TKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.16 earnings per share (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%. Equities research analysts expect that The Timken Company will post 5.62 EPS for the current year.

Timken Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Timken’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.25%.

About Timken

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.