Norges Bank Makes New $42.75 Million Investment in The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 598,970 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,748,000. Norges Bank owned about 0.85% of Timken as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Timken by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,465,760 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $461,461,000 after purchasing an additional 26,973 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Timken by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,158,690 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $225,436,000 after buying an additional 320,354 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised 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 worth $164,689,000 after acquiring an additional 66,208 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in 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. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 711,979 shares during the period. 89.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TKR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Timken from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price target (down from $90.00) on shares of Timken in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Timken from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Timken from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Timken from $91.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.82.

Timken Stock Performance

NYSE TKR opened at $59.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.00, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 3.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The Timken Company has a twelve month low of $58.26 and a twelve month high of $94.71. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.86.

Timken (NYSE:TKR) last issued its earnings results 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Timken Company will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Timken Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Timken’s payout ratio is 27.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Timken news, CFO Philip D. Fracassa sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 approximately $7,379,091.50. This represents a 5.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 8.70% of the stock is currently 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.