Insider Selling: MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) EVP Sells 4,568 Shares of Stock

MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) EVP Eric Robert Taranto sold 4,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.52, for a total transaction of $1,007,335.36. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 15,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,405,931.40. This represents a 22.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Eric Robert Taranto also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, February 20th, Eric Robert Taranto sold 1,453 shares of MKS stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.55, for a total transaction of $359,690.15.

MKS Price Performance

MKSI stock traded up $0.75 during trading on Monday, hitting $210.75. The stock had a trading volume of 1,063,937 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,617,438. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 1.71. MKS Inc. has a twelve month low of $54.84 and a twelve month high of $269.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.23, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.93. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $220.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.64.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for 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%. MKS’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.15 EPS. MKS has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.720-2.280 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that MKS Inc. will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from MKS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 23rd. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.88%.

Institutional Trading of MKS

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MKSI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MKS in the 4th quarter valued at $147,453,000. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP purchased a new stake in MKS in the 4th quarter valued at about $95,880,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its position in MKS by 146.4% in the second quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 912,380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $90,654,000 after buying an additional 542,094 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its position in MKS by 159.7% in the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 839,773 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $134,196,000 after buying an additional 516,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in MKS by 9,165.9% during the third 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MKSI shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of MKS from $215.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on MKS from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of MKS in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on MKS from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.