The Timken Company (NYSE:TKR - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $84.70.

TKR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup reduced their price target on Timken from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 13th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Timken from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the company from $105.00 to $85.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. KeyCorp cut their target price on Timken from $102.00 to $91.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 6th. StockNews.com raised Timken from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on Timken in a research note on Monday, January 8th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $74.00 price objective for the company.

In other news, CFO Philip D. Fracassa sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.03, for a total transaction of $370,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,868 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,578,898.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 9.89% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Timken

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning increased its position in Timken by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,754 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Timken by 3.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,646 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $791,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc acquired a new position in Timken in the second quarter worth about $1,225,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Timken by 3.0% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 796,662 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $72,918,000 after purchasing an additional 23,039 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank acquired a new position in Timken in the second quarter worth about $41,923,000. 84.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Timken Price Performance

TKR opened at $85.92 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $78.40 and a 200 day moving average of $76.67. Timken has a 52-week low of $65.71 and a 52-week high of $95.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.44, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.55.

Timken (NYSE:TKR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Timken had a net margin of 9.09% and a return on equity of 19.94%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Timken will post 6.9 EPS for the current year.