Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. Acquires New Shares in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. bought a new position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,360 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,939,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Somerset Trust Co acquired a new position in MKS during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $221,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in MKS by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,199 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in MKS by 10.2% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,058 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in MKS in the first quarter valued at approximately $9,062,000. Finally, Front Row Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of MKS by 2.5% during the first quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 8,105 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,863,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. KeyCorp increased their price target on MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $600.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $360.00 price target on MKS in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of MKS from $305.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at MKS

In related news, Director Gerald G. Colella sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.40, for a total transaction of $6,668,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,017 shares in the company, valued at $6,673,667.80. This represents a 49.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP David Philip Henry sold 2,500 shares of MKS 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 16,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,400,700.50. The trade was a 13.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 54,406 shares of company stock valued at $17,577,866 over the last three months. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MKS Trading Up 3.5%

Shares of MKSI stock opened at $320.76 on Wednesday. MKS Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.49 and a 1-year high of $447.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.10, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $349.12 and a 200-day moving average of $287.62.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. MKS had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 8.06%.The firm’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MKS Inc. will post 11.81 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is 20.92%.

About MKS

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.