Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 7,823 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its holdings in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 47.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,650 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,823 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in MKS were worth $1,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $200,438,000 after acquiring an additional 5,551 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake 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 worth $97,635,000 after purchasing an additional 301,223 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MKS in the 4th quarter worth $147,453,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in MKS by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 870,654 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $139,131,000 after purchasing an additional 24,349 shares during the period. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MKS

In related news, Director Joseph B. Donahue sold 2,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.95, for a total value of $688,695.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,290,322.35. The trade was a 17.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $3,154,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 144,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,648,694.08. The trade was a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKSI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on MKS from $400.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on MKS from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research note on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MKS currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

MKS Stock Up 5.5%

MKSI opened at $368.78 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $341.95 and its 200 day moving average is $268.23. MKS Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.49 and a fifty-two week high of $447.62.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.05 billion. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.MKS’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.71 EPS. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.