Great Lakes Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 8,367 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,722,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in MKS by 560.0% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 165 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in MKS by 616.7% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 172 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in MKS during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new stake in shares of MKS in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new position in MKS during the third quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MKSI. Mizuho set a $360.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on MKS from $380.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of MKS from $360.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $360.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.00.

Insider Activity

In other MKS news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of MKS stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.01, for a total transaction of $3,020,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,703,699.76. The trade was a 6.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible 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 MKS stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total value of $826,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares in the company, valued at $5,400,700.50. This trade represents a 13.27% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,491 shares of company stock valued at $12,102,072. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MKS Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ MKSI opened at $281.88 on Friday. MKS Inc. has a 1 year low of $97.50 and a 1 year high of $447.62. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $343.48 and its 200-day moving average is $294.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.06 billion, a PE ratio of 44.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.98.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.77 earnings per share. MKS’s revenue was up 28.3% compared to the same quarter last year. MKS has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.270-3.890 EPS. Equities analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 12.96 EPS for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.95%.

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.