Timken Company

Timken makes bearings: parts that reduce friction so a machine's shaft can spin freely while carrying a heavy load. Henry Timken, who patented a tapered roller bearing design, founded the company in 1899, and Timken describes itself as the world's leading authority on that type. Its bearings range from the size of a pencil eraser to roughly three meters across and go into trucks, trains, helicopters, wind turbines, steel mills and mining equipment.

Engineered Bearings is the bigger segment, with $3.02 billion, or 65.9%, of the $4.58 billion in revenue for the year ended December 31, 2025. Industrial Motion made up the other 34.1%. It includes linear guides and actuators for factory automation and robotics, Philadelphia Gear and Cone Drive gear drives, Groeneveld and BEKA automatic lubrication systems, belts, chain, Lovejoy couplings and seals. Timken also earns money repairing large bearings, electric motors and gearboxes.

Timken's customers are equipment makers, called original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and industrial distributors in fields such as renewable energy, automation, autos, agriculture, rail and aerospace. No single customer accounts for more than 5% of sales. In 2025, the United States produced 45.3% of revenue, Europe, the Middle East and Africa 24.6%, Asia-Pacific 20% and the rest of the Americas 10.1%. About 19,000 employees work in 44 countries.

• In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $1.26B, up 7.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $28.9M (-63.2%).
• For fiscal 2025, revenue was $4.58B (+0.2% year over year; +5.5% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 6.3% net margin.

• Over FY2021–FY2025: $653.4M in buybacks and $472.3M in dividends.
• At least 9 consecutive annual increases: every fiscal year in the SEC data (FY2016–FY2025) shows an increase; the true streak may be longer.
• Regular dividends per share grew +4.2% a year over 5 years (FY2020–FY2025).
• Dividends took 34.1% of earnings and 24.2% of free cash flow in the latest fiscal year.
• Shares outstanding changed -8.7% from Sep 30, 2021 to Jul 31, 2026.

Rank among 1514 US companies

Market value at each year end

Timken’s market value went from $3.09B at the end of 2016 to $7.88B on Oct 28, 2026, about 2.5 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 34%.

Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 5 sales ($10.0M).

Large shareholders (13G filings)

ETFs with the most weight in TKR

1. Industrial downturns hit a factory-heavy business. Timken's plants tie up a lot of money, so falling demand from customers can force layoffs, production cuts and write-downs. Write-downs and restructuring cost about $137 million over five years through 2025.
2. Fierce competition keeps prices in check. The global bearing industry is highly competitive and concentrated among large players. Customers push for lower prices, contracts with equipment makers can limit increases, and some may switch to rivals rather than pay Timken's prices.
3. Steel and freight cost swings. Timken uses large amounts of steel. Raw material prices have jumped sharply in the past, and supply has been interrupted. Contract terms or competition can delay passing higher costs to customers, squeezing profit margins.
4. Distributors cutting their stockpiles. Timken relies partly on industrial distributors. When demand softened in the past, distributors cut their inventories and ordered less. Similar de-stocking could hurt Timken's results in a given quarter or year.
5. Tariffs, trade barriers and currency swings. Timken operates in 44 countries and earns most of its revenue outside the United States. New tariffs can raise costs or cut sales, and a stronger dollar shrinks the value of foreign earnings.
6. Debt and rising interest costs. Timken had $2.05 billion of debt against $399 million in cash as of June 30, 2026. Some debt carries variable rates, so higher interest rates raise costs, and more borrowing could pressure credit ratings.

• Aug 4, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Jul 31, 2026 Executive or board change; Other company announcement
• Jul 6, 2026 Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
• May 8, 2026 Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
• May 6, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Apr 21, 2026 Executive or board change
• Feb 17, 2026 Other company announcement
• Feb 13, 2026 Executive or board change
• Feb 4, 2026 Quarterly results released

Timken has raised its regular dividend at least nine years in a row, through 2025. Dividends per share grew from $1.13 in 2020 to $1.39 in 2025, about 4.2% a year. The 2025 dividend used 34.1% of earnings and 24.2% of free cash flow (cash left after paying for operations and equipment), leaving a cushion. The yield was a modest 1.25% as of October 28, 2026. Timken spent $653 million repurchasing its own shares from 2021 to 2025, more than the $472 million it paid in dividends, and its share count fell 8.7% between September 2021 and July 2026.

The stock has fallen hard in downturns. It dropped 72.4% between June 2008 and March 2009 and took about 17 months from its low to recover. In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 53.6% and recovered in about five months. In 2022 it fell 30% before recovering by November. Like any single stock, Timken carries more risk than a diversified fund.