Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $7.49 Million Position in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its stake in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 14.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,572 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 5,332 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in MKS were worth $7,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in MKS by 1.1% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,274 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $982,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of MKS by 14.7% in the 4th 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 during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MKS by 10.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of MKS by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,335 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $693,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of MKS by 6.9% during 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 during the period. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $3,154,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 144,696 shares in the company, valued at $45,648,694.08. This represents a 6.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gerald G. Colella sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.40, for a total value of $6,668,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 20,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,673,667.80. This represents a 49.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months, insiders sold 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of MKS in a report on Friday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $400.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MKS from $374.00 to $442.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of MKS in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $453.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MKS currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.00.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of MKSI stock opened at $352.03 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $345.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $271.02. MKS Inc. has a one year low of $88.49 and a one year high of $447.62. The firm has a market cap of $23.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by $0.30. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

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

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.