Morgan Stanley Increases MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) Price Target to $374.00

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley raised its price target on MKS from $354 to $374 and kept an overweight rating, implying about 23% upside from the prior close.
• Other analysts have also been bullish recently, with firms like Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, KeyCorp, and Citigroup boosting targets; MarketBeat now shows a Moderate Buy consensus and a $318.77 average target.
• MKS reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and provided Q2 guidance of 2.60-3.20 EPS while the stock traded near its 52-week high at $303.17.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $354.00 to $374.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the scientific and technical instruments company's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target suggests a potential upside of 23.36% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on MKSI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "buy" rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Friday, May 8th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Bank of America raised their target price on MKS from $215.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of MKS from $290.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $318.77.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of MKSI stock opened at $303.17 on Monday. MKS has a 12 month low of $80.22 and a 12 month high of $326.83. The stock has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a PE ratio of 63.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.98. 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's fifty day moving average price is $257.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.88.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.00 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.05 billion. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.71 EPS. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MKS will post 11.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eric Robert Taranto sold 4,568 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.52, for a total value of $1,007,335.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 15,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,405,931.40. This represents a 22.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,355 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 49,439 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,817,513.66. This trade represents a 8.10% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 75,258 shares of company stock valued at $19,440,224. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MKS

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MKSI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MKS in the 4th quarter valued at about $147,453,000. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of MKS in the 4th quarter worth $95,880,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its position in shares of MKS by 159.7% in the 4th quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 839,773 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $134,196,000 after purchasing an additional 516,409 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MKS by 9,165.9% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 446,248 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $55,232,000 after purchasing an additional 441,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 340,645 shares in the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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