Kennedy Capital Management LLC Sells 27,418 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

Kennedy Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 16.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 144,139 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 27,418 shares during the quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MKS were worth $23,033,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 295,480 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of MKS by 30.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,265,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $156,602,000 after acquiring an additional 297,850 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MKS by 0.4% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 5,551 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position 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 worth $97,635,000 after acquiring an additional 301,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MKS during the fourth quarter worth $147,453,000. Institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MKSI shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of MKS from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Michelle M. Mccarthy sold 2,434 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.23, for a total value of $767,269.82. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,400,700.50. This represents a 13.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MKS Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of MKSI opened at $355.69 on Friday. MKS Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.49 and a twelve month high of $359.35. The company has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.99. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $295.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.08.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its 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 net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS for the current year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.