MKS Inc. $MKSI Shares Sold by Victory Capital Management Inc.

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 28.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,562,399 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,019,817 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MKS were worth $409,471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MKS by 4.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,752,097 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $959,477,000 after acquiring an additional 295,480 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of MKS by 30.8% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,265,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $156,602,000 after acquiring an additional 297,850 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of MKS by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,254,049 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $200,438,000 after acquiring an additional 5,551 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of MKS by 44.2% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 982,643 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $97,635,000 after acquiring an additional 301,223 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MKS in the fourth quarter worth about $147,453,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total value of $826,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,400,700.50. This represents a 13.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Joseph B. Donahue sold 2,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.95, for a total transaction of $688,695.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,290,322.35. This trade represents a 17.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,949 shares of company stock worth $17,446,108. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MKS Stock Performance

MKS stock opened at $355.69 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $295.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $237.08. MKS Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.49 and a 1-year high of $359.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.99.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.30. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.71 EPS. 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. On average, analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS 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 paid 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 dividend payout ratio is 20.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on MKSI shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of MKS from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of MKS from $354.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MKS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.92.

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.