Insider Selling: MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) CAO Sells 1,466 Shares of Stock

MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) CAO Michelle Mccarthy sold 1,466 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $366,500.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

MKS Price Performance

NASDAQ MKSI traded down $6.50 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $252.77. The stock had a trading volume of 646,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,665,215. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.84. The company has a market cap of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.95. MKS Inc. has a 52-week low of $54.84 and a 52-week high of $269.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. MKS had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 20.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.15 EPS. MKS has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.720-2.280 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. This is a boost from MKS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 23rd. MKS’s payout ratio is currently 22.88%.

Institutional Trading of MKS

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKSI. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MKS by 43.4% in the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 295,963 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $36,631,000 after buying an additional 89,502 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in MKS during the third quarter worth about $1,020,000. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in MKS by 13.1% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 58,933 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,856,000 after acquiring an additional 6,846 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in MKS by 50.2% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,897 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $884,000 after acquiring an additional 2,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. acquired a new stake in MKS in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,681,000. 99.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More MKS News

Here are the key news stories impacting MKS this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management will present at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 2 (live webcast available), providing a platform to update investors and field questions. This raises visibility and could support multiple analyst views. MKS Inc. to Participate in Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple published price‑target raises from analysts in the last 48 hours (examples include targets raised into the $255–$305 range), which signal continued bullish analyst conviction around MKS’s growth outlook. MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) Price Target Raised to $300.00
• Negative Sentiment: Significant insider selling disclosed (Feb. 20 filings): CEO John T.C. Lee sold 30,000 shares (~$7.7M at ~$256.77), and several EVPs/directors/CAO sold additional holdings. Large, clustered insider sales often prompt short‑term share weakness as investors interpret them as liquidity/rotation or signal on timing. SEC Form 4 for the CEO sale is posted. SEC Filing: John T.C. Lee Form 4

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKSI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho set a $320.00 price target on MKS in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on MKS from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of MKS from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price objective on shares of MKS from $135.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MKS has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $273.46.

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.