MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts rate MKS a “Moderate Buy.” Of 16 covering brokerages, 12 recommend buying, one recommends a strong buy, two advise holding, and one rates the stock a sell; the average 12-month price target is $382.86.
• MKS reported quarterly EPS of $3.30, exceeding the $2.91 consensus estimate, while revenue reached $1.25 billion and increased 28.3% year over year. The company guided for third-quarter EPS of $3.27–$3.89.
• Insiders sold 12,891 shares worth approximately $3.9 million over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own 99.79% of the stock. MKS also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, equating to a 0.4% yield.

Shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $382.8571.

MKSI has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of MKS from $365.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Mizuho lowered their price objective on MKS from $360.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded MKS from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th.

Insider Activity at MKS

In other MKS news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.01, for a total transaction of $3,020,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 134,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,703,699.76. This represents a 6.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Edward Williams sold 457 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.31, for a total transaction of $131,757.67. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 4,098 shares in the company, valued at $1,181,494.38. This represents a 10.03% 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. Insiders have sold 12,891 shares of company stock valued at $3,919,127 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.57% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in MKS by 44,581.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,732,653 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $15,449,084,000 after purchasing an additional 34,654,919 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $200,438,000 after buying an additional 5,551 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in MKS by 44.2% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 301,223 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MKS during the 4th quarter valued at $147,453,000. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MKS by 63.4% in 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 buying an additional 340,645 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MKS Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ MKSI opened at $256.24 on Tuesday. MKS has a 12 month low of $97.50 and a 12 month high of $447.62. 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 stock's fifty day moving average price is $326.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $295.89. The stock has a market cap of $17.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.98.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.20 billion. MKS had a net margin of 10.15% and a return on equity of 24.72%. MKS's revenue was up 28.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. MKS has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.270-3.890 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MKS will post 13.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. MKS's dividend payout ratio is presently 15.95%.

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.

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