Peter Cannone III Sells 1,350 Shares of MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) Stock

MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) Director Peter Cannone III sold 1,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.40, for a total transaction of $409,590.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,364,699.60. The trade was a 14.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Peter Cannone III also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, February 20th, Peter Cannone III sold 1,250 shares of MKS stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.06, for a total transaction of $322,575.00.

MKS Trading Up 5.9%

Shares of MKS stock opened at $311.51 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $262.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $216.26. The company has a market cap of $21.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.17, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. MKS Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.22 and a 1 year high of $326.83.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.MKS’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.71 earnings per share. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.15 EPS for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 3rd. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on MKSI shares. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp raised their target price on MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup raised their target price on MKS from $290.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised MKS from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MKS has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $318.77.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MKSI. USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in shares of MKS during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MKS by 560.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 165 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of MKS by 616.7% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 172 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MKS by 74.5% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 260 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of MKS during the third quarter valued at $37,000. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.