MKS Inc. $MKSI Shares Purchased by Westfield Capital Management Co. LP

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 159.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 839,773 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 516,409 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in MKS were worth $134,196,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in MKS by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 390 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in MKS by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 530 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in MKS by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 898 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $144,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC grew its holdings in MKS by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company LLC now owns 15,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,401,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in MKS by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 541 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKSI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of MKS in a report on Friday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on MKS from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered MKS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total value of $826,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares in the company, valued at $5,400,700.50. This trade represents a 13.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,355 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.94, for a total value of $1,393,338.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 49,439 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,817,513.66. This trade represents a 8.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,855 shares of company stock valued at $16,751,520. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MKS Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKSI opened at $330.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.30 billion, a PE ratio of 69.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $283.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $230.00. MKS Inc. has a 1-year low of $86.05 and a 1-year high of $341.81. 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 (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.71 earnings per share. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

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

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.