Legal & General Group Plc Purchases New Stake in MKS Inc. $MKSI

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 117,817 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,816,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in MKS by 47.5% during the second quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of MKS by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,274 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $982,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of MKS by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 390 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MKS by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 530 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MKS by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,335 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

MKS News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting MKS this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised multiple earnings estimates. Zacks increased its Q3 2026 EPS forecast to $3.60 from $3.22 and its FY2026 estimate to $12.76 from $11.86. Estimates were also raised for FY2027 to $16.52 from $15.00 and FY2028 to $20.10 from $18.24. Several quarterly forecasts through 2028 were increased as well, signaling stronger expected earnings momentum. Earnings Estimates Moving Higher for MKS
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price targets imply substantial potential upside. The average analyst target cited by Zacks indicates 49.8% potential appreciation, although the article cautions that price targets are not always reliable. The favorable earnings-revision trend could support the stock if it translates into stronger results. Wall Street Analysts Think MKS Could Surge
• Neutral Sentiment: Mizuho lowered its MKS price target to $330. The target reduction is a negative signal, but the revised target remains well above the level at which the stock recently traded. Mizuho Lowers MKS Price Target
• Negative Sentiment: The CEO sold company shares. CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee reportedly sold 10,000 shares for approximately $3 million. Insider selling can raise concerns about management’s view of near-term valuation or performance, even though it does not necessarily indicate a change in business fundamentals. MKS CEO Sells Shares

MKS Trading Down 5.6%

Shares of MKSI stock opened at $255.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 1.14. MKS Inc. has a 1 year low of $97.50 and a 1 year high of $447.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $330.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $295.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.29 billion, a PE ratio of 40.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.98.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.39. MKS had a return on equity of 24.72% and a net margin of 10.15%.The company had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 28.3% compared to the same quarter last year. MKS has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.270-3.890 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MKS Inc. will post 13.07 EPS for the current year.

MKS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKSI has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of MKS from $380.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $360.00 target price on MKS in a report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of MKS in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp raised their price target on MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on MKS from $365.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MKS news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.01, for a total transaction of $3,020,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,703,699.76. The trade was a 6.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Michelle M. Mccarthy sold 2,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.23, for a total transaction of $767,269.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $630.46. This represents a 99.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,891 shares of company stock worth $3,919,127. 0.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.