Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stake in The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR) by 1.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 753,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,106 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Timken were worth $63,481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Timken by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 24,482 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,064,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its position in Timken by 1.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 9,123 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $731,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Timken by 1.0% in the third quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,282,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Timken by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 997 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Timken by 64.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 430 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. 89.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TKR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Timken from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup raised Timken from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Timken from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Timken from $103.00 to $99.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Timken from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $87.00 to $91.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.90.

Timken Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Timken stock opened at $71.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 1.62. The stock has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.89, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $78.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.05. The Timken Company has a 1 year low of $70.20 and a 1 year high of $94.71.

Timken (NYSE:TKR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion. Timken had a net margin of 7.41% and a return on equity of 14.82%. Timken’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Timken Company will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Timken Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. Timken’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.27%.

Insider Activity at Timken

In related news, Director Richard G. Kyle sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.59, for a total transaction of $2,297,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 194,485 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,895,606.15. This represents a 13.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 8.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.