19,500 Shares in MKS Inc. $MKSI Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 19,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,481,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairvoy Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in MKS in the first quarter valued at about $706,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of MKS by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,274 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $982,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of MKS by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,087 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of MKS in the 1st quarter worth approximately $650,000. Finally, Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MKS in the 1st quarter worth approximately $213,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MKS

In other news, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total transaction of $826,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,400,700.50. This trade represents a 13.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Michelle M. Mccarthy sold 2,434 shares of MKS stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.23, for a total transaction of $767,269.82. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $630.46. This represents a 99.92% 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 a total of 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

MKS Price Performance

MKS stock opened at $388.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $26.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.30, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $322.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $253.50. MKS Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.49 and a 52 week high of $421.58.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.71 EPS. The company’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. On average, research analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MKSI shares. KeyCorp increased their price objective on MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on MKS from $290.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $343.77.

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.