Venturi Wealth Management LLC Has $629,000 Stake in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lowered its position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 36.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,578 shares during the quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in MKS were worth $629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position 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 buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in MKS by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 390 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in MKS by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 530 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in MKS by 1.3% in the fourth 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 stake in MKS by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 898 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $144,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on MKSI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of MKS in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MKS from $380.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on MKS from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $343.77.

Insider Activity at MKS

In related news, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $2,779,378.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1 shares in the company, valued at approximately $315.48. This trade represents a 99.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,355 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.94, for a total value of $1,393,338.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 49,439 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,817,513.66. This represents a 8.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108 in the last 90 days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of MKSI opened at $388.61 on Monday. 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 has a market capitalization of $26.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.30, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $322.93 and a 200 day moving average of $254.13. MKS Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.49 and a 12 month high of $421.58.

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

MKS Announces Dividend

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