Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Takes $9.06 Million Position in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 39,434 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,062,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Front Row Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in MKS by 2.5% in the first quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 8,105 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,863,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in MKS during the 1st quarter worth about $92,000. Anson Funds Management LP acquired a new position in MKS during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,792,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of MKS by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 30,370 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $6,983,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bull Harbor Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of MKS in the 1st quarter valued at about $242,000. Institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKSI opened at $297.45 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.98. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $349.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.70. 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 data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.81 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS’s payout ratio is 20.92%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total transaction of $3,154,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 144,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,648,694.08. This trade represents a 6.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gerald G. Colella sold 20,000 shares of MKS stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.40, for a total value of $6,668,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,673,667.80. This represents a 49.98% 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 have sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108 over the last 90 days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKSI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of MKS from $355.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MKS from $374.00 to $442.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MKS has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.57.

MKS 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.