MKS Inc. $MKSI Shares Acquired by GHP Investment Advisors Inc.

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 6.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 50,487 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 2,926 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in MKS were worth $11,602,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of MKS by 1.1% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,274 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $982,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in MKS by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 390 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in MKS by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 530 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in MKS by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,335 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $693,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in MKS by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 898 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $144,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MKSI. KeyCorp upped their target price on MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, MKS has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.94, for a total transaction of $1,393,338.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 49,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,817,513.66. This represents a 8.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $2,779,378.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1 shares in the company, valued at $315.48. This represents a 99.99% decrease in their position. 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of MKSI opened at $410.31 on Friday. MKS Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.49 and a 52 week high of $421.58. 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 cap of $27.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.84, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $320.54 and a 200-day moving average of $252.55.

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

MKS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is 20.92%.

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.