OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Cuts Stake in MKS Inc. $MKSI

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lessened its stake in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 25.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,422 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 8,107 shares during the quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in MKS were worth $2,899,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of MKS by 3.6% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 267,421 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $21,434,000 after acquiring an additional 9,170 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in MKS by 63.9% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 952 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in MKS by 265.5% during the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 837 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital purchased a new position in shares of MKS during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $280,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of MKS during the second quarter worth approximately $991,000. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on MKSI. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $92.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Benchmark lifted their price target on MKS from $135.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on MKS from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of MKS from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.82.

MKS Stock Up 7.9%

MKS stock opened at $205.26 on Friday. MKS Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.84 and a 52 week high of $211.08. The stock has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.82, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.92. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $161.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.13. MKS had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 7.25%.The firm had revenue of $988.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $963.87 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.930-2.610 EPS. On average, analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. MKS’s payout ratio is 21.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Elizabeth Mora sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.81, for a total transaction of $47,643.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,011,514.03. This represents a 1.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.