MKS Inc. $MKSI Shares Sold by Capital International Investors

Capital International Investors lessened its holdings in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,239,230 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 15,433 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors’ holdings in MKS were worth $517,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MKSI. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new stake in shares of MKS in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in MKS by 560.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 165 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in MKS by 616.7% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 172 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in MKS by 74.5% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 260 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new position in MKS during the third quarter worth $37,000. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at MKS

In other MKS news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $3,154,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 144,696 shares in the company, valued at $45,648,694.08. This represents a 6.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gerald G. Colella sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.40, for a total transaction of $6,668,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,673,667.80. This trade represents a 49.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 51,855 shares of company stock worth $16,751,520 over the last 90 days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered MKS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.92.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of MKS stock opened at $301.65 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $285.07 and a 200 day moving average of $231.12. MKS Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.46 and a 12 month high of $341.81.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.71 earnings per share. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is 20.92%.

MKS Profile

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.