The Timken Company TKR scaled a new 52-week high of $128.31 on Wednesday before ending the session lower at $127.16. The increase was fueled by the upbeat outlook outlined at Investor Day on May 20.
The company currently has a market capitalization of $8.8 billion and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
In the past year, shares of Timken have surged 85.3% compared with the industry’s 85.6% growth.
What’s Aiding Timken’s Stock?
Upbeat Outlook: At Investor Day, the company launched its Elevate to Outperform strategy focused on optimizing its portfolio. Backed by initiatives, the company targets mid-single-digit organic sales CAGR through 2028 and total sales of $5-$5.2 billion in 2028. It expects 2028 adjusted earnings per share to be $8.50, which suggests a 55% increase from that reported in 2025.
Timken expects the Industrial Motion segment’s adjusted EBITDA margin to be 25-27% of sales in 2028, implying an increase of 19% from that reported in 2025. The Engineered Bearings segment’s adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be up 21%-23% of sales in 2028 from the 18.9% registered in 2025.
Resilient Demand Base: Timken’s engineered bearings and motion components are used in mission-critical applications across diverse end markets. At Investor Day, the company linked growth to automation and robotics, AI-driven power demand and electrification, aerospace and defense, and infrastructure.
In the first quarter of 2026, the consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 18.8% from 18.2% a year ago, supported by price and higher volumes in Industrial Motion.
Portfolio Expansion via M&A: Timken continues to use acquisitions to broaden its bearings and adjacent power transmission offerings, with an emphasis on higher-value industrial motion. The company’s acquisition of CGI added precision drive systems, serving automation markets with exposure to medical robotics, and follows earlier purchases such as Cone Drive and Spinea.
In March 2026, Timken acquired Bijur Delimon, a designer and manufacturer of automated lubrication systems. Management said that the business expands exposure to verticals such as rail, power generation and mining, and it scales the automated lubrication platform to nearly $400 million in total revenues. The company expects the acquired business to generate more than $60 million of sales in 2026 and be accretive to Industrial Motion's margins after synergies.
Balanced Capital Returns & Liquidity: Timken has a long history of returning cash to shareholders, including 415 consecutive quarterly dividends so far. In the first quarter of 2026, the company returned $53.3 million through dividends and repurchased 282 thousand shares, and the board approved a 10-million share repurchase authorization that runs through February 2031.
Its board recently approved a 2.9% increase in the quarterly cash dividend to 36 cents per share. This marks the 13th year of higher annualized dividend payouts.
At the end of the first quarter, total debt to total capital was 0.38 and net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 2.1X, within the stated 1.5X-2.5X target. The company has no significant debt maturities until 2027.
Other Stocks to Consider
Some other top-ranked stocks from the Computer and Technology space are Applied Materials AMAT, Flex Ltd. FLEX and Celestica Inc. CLS. These three companies also carry a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Applied Materials has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 6.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Applied Materials’ fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $12.02 per share. AMAT shares have skyrocketed 183.24% over the past year.
Flex has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FLEX’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $4.45 per share. Flex’s shares soared 247.6% last year.
Celestica has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 8%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Celestica’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $10.16 per share. CLS shares have surged 207% in the past year.
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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Timken Company (The) (TKR): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).