Old West Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 8,790 MKS Inc. $MKSI

Old West Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 8,790 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,910,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MKSI. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MKS by 0.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of MKS by 44.2% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 982,643 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $97,635,000 after acquiring an additional 301,223 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in MKS in the fourth quarter valued at about $147,453,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in MKS by 63.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 878,114 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $87,249,000 after purchasing an additional 340,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in MKS by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 870,654 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $139,131,000 after purchasing an additional 24,349 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of MKS from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of MKS from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of MKS in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $453.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $600.00 target price on shares of MKS in a report on Monday, August 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.00.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of MKSI opened at $310.73 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $21.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.98. MKS Inc. has a 1 year low of $97.30 and a 1 year high of $447.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $345.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $292.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.39. MKS had a net margin of 10.15% and a return on equity of 24.72%. The business had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. MKS’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.3% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.270-3.890 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that MKS Inc. will post 12.96 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.95%.

Insider Activity at MKS

In other news, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $2,779,378.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 1 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $315.48. The trade was a 99.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Michelle M. Mccarthy sold 2,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.23, for a total transaction of $767,269.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $630.46. This represents a 99.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 46,301 shares of company stock valued at $15,016,151. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MKS Company 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.