09:25 AM EDT, 04/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lift our price target by $6 to $107, 16x our 2025 EPS view, near semi equipment peers and above MKSI's three-year average (~14x) on increasing momentum in the advanced packaging space (to support AI applications) and emerging signs that the memory downcycle is reversing. We maintain our 2024 EPS view at $4.58 and raise 2025's by $0.08 to $6.69. Our downgrade is primarily valuation based, as we think some of the recent upward movement in MKSI shares (up ~25% year-to-date) is based on general market enthusiasm around AI and the impending recovery in memory, driven by DRAM. We think MKSI stands to benefit from these trends, and note that its photonics solutions for lithography, metrology, and inspection should see strength in 2024 on increased leading-edge logic activity. However, it is also exposed to the still-soft NAND memory market, and we think the company deserves a discount to peers given its high debt load (4.7x net leverage exiting 2023), which holds a moderately high weighted average rate of 7.7%.