SG Americas Securities LLC Increases Stock Position in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Key Points

• SG Americas Securities LLC increased its MKS stake by 477% in the first quarter, ending with 110,343 shares worth about $25.4 million. The filing notes that institutional investors and hedge funds still own nearly all of the company’s shares.
• Wall Street sentiment is mostly positive, with several firms raising price targets, including Bank of America to $500 and Cantor Fitzgerald to $400. Consensus from MarketBeat shows a Moderate Buy rating and an average target price of $343.77.
• MKS reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, posting EPS of $2.30 on revenue of $1.08 billion, and raised Q2 2026 guidance to $2.60-$3.20 EPS. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share and has seen recent insider selling, including by the CEO and CAO.

SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI - Free Report) by 477.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 110,343 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 91,219 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC owned approximately 0.16% of MKS worth $25,358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new stake in MKS in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of MKS by 616.7% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 172 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in shares of MKS in the 3rd quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of MKS by 55.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 256 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on MKSI. KeyCorp raised their target price on MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of MKS from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of MKS from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "sell" rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of MKS from $380.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $343.77.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKSI opened at $381.62 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $25.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.99. The stock's 50-day moving average is $317.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.81. MKS Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.49 and a 1-year high of $421.58.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI - Get Free Report) last announced 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 the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.71 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. Analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS's dividend payout ratio is currently 20.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Michelle M. Mccarthy sold 2,434 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.23, for a total value of $767,269.82. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2 shares of the company's stock, valued at $630.46. This represents a 99.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $3,154,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 144,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,648,694.08. This represents a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company's stock.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.