Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Timken Co. (NYSE:TKR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning. The firm currently has $49.00 price objective on the stock.

According to Zacks, “The Timken Company engineers, manufactures and markets bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, belts, chain and related products, and offers a spectrum of powertrain rebuild and repair services. The leading authority on tapered roller bearings, Timken today applies its deep knowledge of metallurgy, tribology and mechanical power transmission across a variety of bearings and related systems to improve reliability and efficiency of machinery and equipment all around the world. The company’s growing product and services portfolio features many strong industrial brands including Timken, Fafnir, Philadelphia Gear, Carlisle, Drives and Interlube. “

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on TKR. Stifel Nicolaus cut Timken from a buy rating to a hold rating and increased their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Thursday, December 8th. Bank of America Corp. cut Timken from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, November 17th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Timken from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $38.29.

Shares of Timken (NYSE:TKR) traded down 1.572% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.275. The stock had a trading volume of 273,143 shares. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $41.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.76. The stock has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.475 and a beta of 1.51. Timken has a 12-month low of $23.57 and a 12-month high of $44.55.

Timken (NYSE:TKR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 27th. The company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The firm earned $657.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Timken had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 3.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Timken will post $1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TKR. Texas Permanent School Fund raised its position in shares of Timken by 1.8% in the third quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 53,673 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,886,000 after buying an additional 972 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its position in shares of Timken by 6.3% in the third quarter. BlackRock Fund Advisors now owns 2,563,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,087,000 after buying an additional 153,029 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Timken by 6.4% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,041,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,736,000 after buying an additional 123,006 shares during the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its position in shares of Timken by 3.5% in the third quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 109,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,845,000 after buying an additional 3,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in shares of Timken by 67.6% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 275,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,664,000 after buying an additional 110,900 shares during the last quarter. 78.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.