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

Key Points

• MKS Inc. has a consensus analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 16 analysts, with an average 12-month price target of $380.00. The mix includes 11 buy ratings, 2 strong buys, 2 holds, and 1 sell.
• Recent analyst updates have been mostly bullish, including higher price targets from Cantor Fitzgerald, KeyCorp, and Citigroup, though Wall Street Zen downgraded the stock from strong-buy to buy.
• Insiders have been selling shares, including the CFO and an EVP, while institutional ownership remains very high at 99.79%. MKS also beat its latest quarterly earnings and revenue estimates and pays a small quarterly dividend.

Shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $380.00.

A number of analysts have recently commented on MKSI shares. Wall Street Zen cut 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 target 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on MKS from $290.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of MKS in a report on Friday, May 8th.

Insider Transactions at MKS

In other MKS news, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of MKS stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 1 shares of the company's stock, valued at $315.48. The trade was a 99.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total transaction of $826,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,341 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,400,700.50. The trade was a 13.27% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108 in the last quarter. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MKS

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MKSI. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in MKS by 0.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 5,551 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in MKS by 44.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 982,643 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $97,635,000 after purchasing an additional 301,223 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MKS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $147,453,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of MKS by 63.4% in the second quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 878,114 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $87,249,000 after purchasing an additional 340,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of MKS by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 870,654 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $139,131,000 after purchasing an additional 24,349 shares in the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKSI opened at $368.58 on Monday. The business's 50 day moving average price is $344.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $269.69. MKS has a 1 year low of $88.49 and a 1 year high of $447.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.11, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The firm's revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.71 EPS. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MKS 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. MKS's payout ratio is presently 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.

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