MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) Receives $171.10 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $171.10.

MKSI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on MKS from $136.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of MKS from $92.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MKS from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 20th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of MKS in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th.

Insider Activity

In other MKS news, Director Elizabeth Mora sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.81, for a total value of $47,643.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,963 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,011,514.03. This trade represents a 1.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jacqueline F. Moloney sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.14, for a total value of $36,642.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,562 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,412,182.68. This represents a 2.53% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MKS by 4.0% during 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 buying an additional 295,480 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in MKS by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,321,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $163,609,000 after acquiring an additional 94,692 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in MKS by 30.8% during the 3rd 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 lifted its position in MKS by 2.9% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 35,065 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC grew its stake in MKS by 79.3% during the 2nd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 991,298 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $98,495,000 after purchasing an additional 438,338 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

MKS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKSI opened at $162.81 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $152.18 and a 200 day moving average of $124.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The company has a market capitalization of $10.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.93. MKS has a 52 week low of $54.84 and a 52 week high of $170.37.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.13. MKS had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 7.25%.The business had revenue of $988.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $963.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. MKS has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.930-2.610 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MKS will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Investors of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. MKS’s payout ratio is 21.36%.

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.