Head to Head Comparison: Timken (NYSE:TKR) vs. BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI)

Timken (NYSE:TKR) and BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Timken and BIO-key International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Timken	0	7	4	0	2.36
BIO-key International	0	0	0	0	0.00

Timken presently has a consensus target price of $80.73, indicating a potential upside of 6.85%. Given Timken’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Timken is more favorable than BIO-key International.

Profitability

This table compares Timken and BIO-key International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Timken	6.86%	11.78%	5.52%
BIO-key International	-60.92%	-92.10%	-45.86%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of Timken shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.5% of BIO-key International shares are held by institutional investors. 8.7% of Timken shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of BIO-key International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Timken and BIO-key International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Timken	$4.57 billion	1.15	$352.70 million	$4.40	17.17
BIO-key International	$6.93 million	0.75	-$4.30 million	($1.28)	-0.59

Timken has higher revenue and earnings than BIO-key International. BIO-key International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Timken, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Timken has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BIO-key International has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Timken beats BIO-key International on 14 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. This segment serves wind energy, agriculture, construction, food and beverage, metals and mining, automotive and truck, aerospace, rail, and other industries under the Timken, GGB, and Fafnir brands. Its Industrial Motion segment offers a portfolio of engineered products comprising industrial drives, automatic lubrication systems, linear motion products and systems, chains, belts, seals, couplings, filtration systems, and industrial clutches and brakes. It also provides industrial drivetrain and bearing repairing services. This segment serves a range of industries, such as solar energy, automation, construction, agriculture and turf, passenger rail, marine, aerospace, packaging and logistics, medical, and others under the Philadelphia Gear, Cone Drive, Rollon, Nadella, Groeneveld, BEKA, Diamond, Drives, Timken Belts, Spinea, Des-Case, Lagersmit, Lovejoy, and PT Tech brands. The Timken Company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio.

About BIO-key International

BIO-key International, Inc. develops and markets fingerprint identification biometric technology and software solutions, and enterprise-ready identity access management solutions for commercial, government, and education customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers BIO-key PortalGuard and PortalGuard IDaaS solutions, a customer-controlled and neutral-by-design cloud-based identity platform that allows customers to integrate with any cloud or on-premises SaaS application, as well as windows device authentication through IAM platform. Its solutions enable its customers to secure their workforces and student populations; and make their partner networks more collaborative. In addition, it provides BIO-key VST and WEB-key products; and Civil and Large-Scale ID Infrastructure solutions that develops finger-based biometric technology. Further, it offers finger scanners for enterprise and consumer markets under SideSwipe, EcoID, and SidePass brand names. The company was formerly known as SAC Technologies and changed its name to BIO-key International, Inc. in 2002. BIO-key International, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Wall, New Jersey.