Kera Capital Partners Inc. Acquires Shares of 2,292 MKS Inc. $MKSI

Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in MKS Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,292 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $366,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MKSI. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC purchased a new stake in MKS during the fourth quarter worth $3,618,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC purchased a new position in MKS in the fourth quarter valued at $764,000. Blue Grotto Capital LLC increased its holdings in MKS by 13.2% in the third quarter. Blue Grotto Capital LLC now owns 211,848 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,220,000 after buying an additional 24,697 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Cayman LP acquired a new position in shares of MKS in the fourth quarter worth about $27,965,000. Finally, Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MKS in the fourth quarter worth about $3,764,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.79% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MKS

In other news, CFO Ramakumar Mayampurath sold 8,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.48, for a total value of $2,779,378.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 1 shares in the company, valued at $315.48. This trade represents a 99.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gerald G. Colella sold 20,000 shares of MKS stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.40, for a total value of $6,668,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,017 shares in the company, valued at $6,673,667.80. This represents a 49.98% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 53,949 shares of company stock valued at $17,446,108. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MKS Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKSI opened at $406.37 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $310.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.85. MKS Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.49 and a 52-week high of $408.87. The firm has a market cap of $27.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

MKS (NASDAQ:MKSI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. MKS had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 21.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.71 earnings per share. MKS has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-3.200 EPS. Equities analysts predict that MKS Inc. will post 11.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MKS Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. MKS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on MKSI. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MKS in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on MKS from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on MKS from $255.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MKS in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on MKS from $300.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.92.

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.