Quantum Portfolio Management LLC Sells 1,494 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

Quantum Portfolio Management LLC cut its holdings in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 51.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,494 shares during the quarter. Quantum Portfolio Management LLC’s holdings in MKS were worth $320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MKS by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,254,049 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $200,438,000 after purchasing an additional 5,551 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 301,223 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MKS during the fourth quarter worth $147,453,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in MKS by 63.4% during the second quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 878,114 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $87,249,000 after buying an additional 340,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in MKS by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 870,654 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $139,131,000 after buying an additional 24,349 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $3,154,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 144,696 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,648,694.08. This represents a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.50, for a total transaction of $826,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,400,700.50. This represents a 13.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MKSI. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on MKS from $374.00 to $442.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp boosted their target price on MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of MKS in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKSI opened at $368.78 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.15, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.93. MKS Inc. has a one year low of $88.49 and a one year high of $447.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $341.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $268.23. 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 (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, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 11.77 EPS for the current year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. MKS’s payout ratio is presently 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.