Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) Trading Down 7% on Insider Selling

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) fell 7% on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $23.54 and last traded at $23.30. 772,757 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 16% from the average session volume of 665,194 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.05.

Specifically, Director Mary Paladino sold 42,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.00, for a total transaction of $1,026,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 33,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $811,152. This trade represents a 55.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PLAB. Wall Street Zen raised Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Craig Hallum assumed coverage on Photronics in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $32.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Photronics in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Singular Research upgraded Photronics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Photronics has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $31.00.

Photronics Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.23 and a beta of 1.54. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.22.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. Photronics had a return on equity of 8.19% and a net margin of 12.67%.The business had revenue of $210.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $204.30 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. Photronics has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.420-0.480 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Byrne Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Photronics in the 2nd quarter worth $40,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 336.4% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 2,775 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of Photronics in the 1st quarter worth $98,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 36.1% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,755 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 424.0% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 8,363 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 6,767 shares during the last quarter. 88.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Photronics Company Profile

Photronics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of photomask products and services in the United States, Taiwan, China, Korea, Europe, and internationally. It offers photomasks that are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and flat panel displays (FPDs); and to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers, and FDP substrates.