Natixis Advisors LLC Acquires 41,247 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 522,415 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 41,247 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in MKS were worth $83,482,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in MKS by 4.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,752,097 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $959,477,000 after acquiring an additional 295,480 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in MKS by 30.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,265,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $156,602,000 after acquiring an additional 297,850 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MKS by 0.4% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 5,551 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of MKS by 44.2% in the second 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 buying an additional 301,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MKS in the fourth quarter worth approximately $147,453,000. Institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

MKS Trading Up 4.3%

Shares of NASDAQ MKSI opened at $331.36 on Wednesday. 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 50 day moving average price is $278.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $226.08. MKS Inc. has a 52-week low of $81.27 and a 52-week high of $339.00. The company has a market cap of $22.38 billion, a PE ratio of 69.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.99.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be issued 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, June 3rd. MKS’s payout ratio is presently 20.92%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $315.48. The trade was a 99.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $3,154,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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. 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 56,423 shares of company stock valued at $17,758,856 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho set a $400.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Friday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.92.

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.