How to buy MKS Instruments stock | 131.5

MKS Instruments, Inc is a scientific & technical instruments business based in the US. MKS Instruments shares (MKSI) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. MKS Instruments employs 5,500 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$2.2 billion.

How to buy shares in MKS Instruments

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for MKS Instruments. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: MKSI. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until MKS Instruments reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$131.5, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of MKS Instruments, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of MKS Instruments. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted MKS Instruments's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, MKS Instruments's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was USD$131.5, which is 14.82% up on its pre-crash value of USD$112.01 and 96.65% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$66.87.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of MKS Instruments shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$670.97 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,201.91.

MKS Instruments share price

Use our graph to track the performance of MKSI stocks over time.

MKS Instruments shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-11-23.

Latest market close	USD$131.5
52-week range	USD$66.5297 - USD$138.38
50-day moving average	USD$119.2269
200-day moving average	USD$114.4614
Wall St. target price	USD$148.09
PE ratio	26.5339
Dividend yield	USD$0.8 (0.6%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$5.019

Buy MKS Instruments shares from these brokerages

Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of types of investments among top trading platforms.

Is it a good time to buy MKS Instruments stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of MKS Instruments, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

MKS Instruments price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $131.5 from 2020-11-16

1 week (2020-11-23)	-4.81%
1 month (2020-10-30)	21.32%
3 months (2020-08-28)	7.98%
6 months (2020-05-29)	24.49%

1 year (2019-11-29)	23.73%
2 years (2018-11-30)	67.60%
3 years (2017-11-30)	39.45%
5 years (2015-11-30)	256.66%

Is MKS Instruments under- or over-valued?

Valuing MKS Instruments stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of MKS Instruments's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

MKS Instruments's P/E ratio

MKS Instruments's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 27x. In other words, MKS Instruments shares trade at around 27x recent earnings.

That's comparable to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29).

MKS Instruments's PEG ratio

MKS Instruments's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.61. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into MKS Instruments's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

MKS Instruments's EBITDA

MKS Instruments's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$498.2 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a MKS Instruments's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

MKS Instruments financials

Revenue TTM	USD$2.2 billion
Operating margin TTM	18.08%
Gross profit TTM	USD$838.1 million
Return on assets TTM	6.9%
Return on equity TTM	13.2%
Profit margin	12.78%
Book value	$40.387
Market capitalisation	USD$7.6 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting MKS Instruments shares

There are currently 903,651 MKS Instruments shares held short by investors – that's known as MKS Instruments's "short interest". This figure is 6.8% up from 846,396 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting MKS Instruments shares can be evaluated.

MKS Instruments's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

MKS Instruments's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of MKS Instruments shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of MKS Instruments shares traded daily (recently around 320443.61702128). MKS Instruments's SIR currently stands at 2.82. In other words for every 100,000 MKS Instruments shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2820 shares are currently held short.

However MKS Instruments's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of MKS Instruments shares, or, against the total number of tradable MKS Instruments shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case MKS Instruments's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 MKS Instruments shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0166% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable MKS Instruments shares, roughly 17 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against MKS Instruments.

Find out more about how you can short MKS Instruments stock.

MKS Instruments share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 12.72% of net profits

Recently MKS Instruments has paid out, on average, around 12.72% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.6% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), MKS Instruments shareholders could enjoy a 0.6% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In MKS Instruments's case, that would currently equate to about $0.8 per share.

While MKS Instruments's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that MKS Instruments is investing more in its future growth.

MKS Instruments's most recent dividend payout was on 4 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 20 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

MKS Instruments share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, MKS Instruments's shares have ranged in value from as little as $66.5297 up to $138.38. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while MKS Instruments's is 1.522. This would suggest that MKS Instruments's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

MKS Instruments overview

MKS Instruments, Inc. provides instruments, systems, subsystems, and process control solutions that measure, monitor, deliver, analyze, power, and control critical parameters of manufacturing processes worldwide. Its Vacuum & Analysis segment offers pressure and vacuum control solutions, including direct and indirect pressure measurement; materials delivery solutions comprising flow and valve technologies, as well as integrated pressure measurement and control subsystems, which provide customers with precise control capabilities; power delivery products, such as microwave, power delivery systems, radio frequency matching networks, and metrology products used in providing energy to etching, stripping, and deposition processes; and plasma and reactive gas products. The company's Light & Motion segment offers lasers and laser-based systems, such as amplifiers, fiber lasers, diode-pumped solid-state lasers, high-energy pulsed lasers, and tunable lasers; and photonics products comprising optical components, lens assemblies, and vibration isolation solutions, as well as instruments and motion products, such as high-precision motion stages and controls, hexapods, photonics instruments for measurement and analysis, and production equipment for test and measurement. Its Equipment & Solutions segment provides laser-based systems for printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing, including flexible interconnect PCB processing systems and HDI solutions for rigid PCB manufacturing and substrate processing, as well as passive component MLCC testing. The company serves semiconductor, industrial technologies, life and health sciences, research, and defense markets. It markets and sells its products and services through its direct sales organization, independent distributors, and sales representatives, as well as through its websites and product catalogs. MKS Instruments, Inc. was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of MKS Instruments is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 1.151% of MKS Instruments shares are held by insiders and 104.434% by institutions.

• How many people work for MKS Instruments?

  Latest data suggests 5,500 work at MKS Instruments.

• When does the fiscal year end for MKS Instruments?

  MKS Instruments's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is MKS Instruments based?

  MKS Instruments's address is: 2 Tech Drive, Andover, MA, United States, 01810

• What is MKS Instruments's ISIN number?

  MKS Instruments's international securities identification number is: US55306N1046

• What is MKS Instruments's CUSIP number?

  MKS Instruments's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 55306N104