MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $3,154,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 144,696 shares in the company, valued at $45,648,694.08. This trade represents a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

MKS Trading Up 4.2%

Shares of MKSI opened at $334.11 on Wednesday. MKS Inc. has a twelve month low of $80.22 and a twelve month high of $334.80. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $221.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.98.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.71 earnings per share. MKS’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.15 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS’s payout ratio is presently 20.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on MKSI shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on MKS from $290.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on MKS from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MKS presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $318.77.

Institutional Trading of MKS

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MKS by 4.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,752,097 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $959,477,000 after acquiring an additional 295,480 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its position in shares of MKS by 7.7% during the third quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,321,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $163,609,000 after acquiring an additional 94,692 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of MKS by 30.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,265,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $156,602,000 after acquiring an additional 297,850 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MKS by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,254,049 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $200,438,000 after buying an additional 5,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of MKS by 44.2% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 982,643 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $97,635,000 after buying an additional 301,223 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About MKS

MKS Instruments, Inc (NASDAQ: MKSI) designs, manufactures and markets technology solutions that enable advanced processes in a variety of high‐technology and industrial markets. The company’s core offerings include vacuum and gas delivery systems, pressure and flow measurement instruments, optical metrology tools, photonics subsystems and critical components for manufacturing processes. These products support the precise control and monitoring needs of semiconductor, industrial manufacturing, life and health sciences, and research applications.

The company’s product portfolio features mass flow controllers, pressure transducers, vacuum gauges, gas purity monitors, laser-based metrology systems and photonic devices such as lasers and detectors.