Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires 92,000 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 522.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 109,600 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 92,000 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in MKS were worth $13,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MKSI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its holdings in MKS by 7.7% in the third quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,321,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $163,609,000 after purchasing an additional 94,692 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MKS by 2.9% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,258,108 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $125,025,000 after purchasing an additional 35,065 shares during the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC grew its position in MKS by 79.3% in the 2nd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 991,298 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $98,495,000 after purchasing an additional 438,338 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in MKS by 44.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 982,643 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $97,635,000 after buying an additional 301,223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MKSI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on MKS from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. TD Cowen increased their target price on MKS from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on MKS from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on MKS from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of MKS from $200.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $273.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at MKS

In other MKS news, EVP Kathleen Flaherty Burke sold 4,254 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,063,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,448,500. This trade represents a 7.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.77, for a total transaction of $7,703,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 154,696 shares in the company, valued at $39,721,291.92. This trade represents a 16.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 63,595 shares of company stock valued at $16,183,893. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of MKS stock opened at $244.46 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $16.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $214.24 and its 200 day moving average is $162.09. MKS Inc. has a one year low of $54.84 and a one year high of $269.91.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.51 by ($0.04). MKS had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 20.85%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.720-2.280 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MKS Inc. will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 23rd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 23rd. This is a boost from MKS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.88%.

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.