California State Teachers Retirement System Buys 34,654,919 Shares of MKS Inc. $MKSI

California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) by 44,581.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,732,653 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 34,654,919 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.51% of MKS worth $15,449,084,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in MKS by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,098 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,823,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in MKS by 35.3% in the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,752 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after purchasing an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in MKS by 4.8% in the second quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 917 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. AlphaGrep UK Ltd acquired a new stake in MKS in the second quarter worth $383,000. Finally, Oakmont Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in MKS in the second quarter worth $222,000. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MKS Price Performance

MKSI stock opened at $260.31 on Tuesday. MKS Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $102.14 and a fifty-two week high of $447.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.52, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.98. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $312.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.71.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.39. MKS had a net margin of 10.15% and a return on equity of 24.72%. The firm had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The business’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. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MKS Inc. will post 13.07 earnings per share for the current year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded MKS from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings cut MKS from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MKS from $374.00 to $442.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on MKS from $360.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of MKS from $360.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MKS news, CEO John Tseng-Chung Lee sold 10,000 shares of MKS stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.01, for a total value of $3,020,100.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Williams sold 457 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.31, for a total value of $131,757.67. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 4,098 shares in the company, valued at $1,181,494.38. The trade was a 10.03% 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 90 days, insiders sold 10,757 shares of company stock worth $3,227,146. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.