Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Takes Position in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 200,125 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,769,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 295,480 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its holdings in shares of MKS by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,321,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $163,609,000 after purchasing an additional 94,692 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of MKS by 30.8% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,265,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $156,602,000 after buying an additional 297,850 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MKS by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,258,108 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $125,025,000 after buying an additional 35,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MKS by 79.3% during the 2nd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 991,298 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $98,495,000 after buying an additional 438,338 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MKS

In other MKS news, EVP Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,254 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,063,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 53,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,448,500. This trade represents a 7.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John Edward Williams sold 2,043 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.41, for a total transaction of $523,845.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,640 shares in the company, valued at approximately $933,332.40. This trade represents a 35.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 68,163 shares of company stock worth $17,215,417. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MKSI. Zacks Research upgraded MKS from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Mizuho set a $320.00 price objective on MKS in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered MKS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of MKS from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $273.46.

MKS Stock Performance

MKS stock opened at $218.36 on Tuesday. MKS Inc. has a 12-month low of $54.84 and a 12-month high of $269.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 1.71. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $222.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $167.48.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.04). MKS had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 20.85%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.720-2.280 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from MKS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.88%.

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.