PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Increases Holdings in MKS Inc. $MKSI

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 30.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 2,337 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in MKS were worth $1,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MKSI. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in MKS by 9,165.9% during 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 buying an additional 441,432 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in MKS by 63.4% during 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. Nomura Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in MKS by 316.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 426,509 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $52,789,000 after buying an additional 324,195 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in MKS during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,023,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $97,635,000 after purchasing an additional 301,223 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at MKS

In related news, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total value of $826,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,400,700.50. This represents a 13.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,648,694.08. This represents a 6.46% 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. Insiders sold 34,623 shares of company stock worth $10,473,993 in the last quarter. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of MKS in a report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen cut MKS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on MKS from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.92.

MKS Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of MKSI opened at $328.01 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $22.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $272.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.56. MKS Inc. has a twelve month low of $80.22 and a twelve month high of $339.00.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.71 EPS. The firm’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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.92%.

MKS 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.