Photronics, Inc. $PLAB Stock Position Lifted by Boston Partners

Boston Partners grew its position in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 2.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 826,718 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,037 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned approximately 1.37% of Photronics worth $15,706,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Photronics by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,907,219 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $122,634,000 after purchasing an additional 38,330 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,607,874 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,106,000 after buying an additional 383,355 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Photronics by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,306,176 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $43,425,000 after buying an additional 109,909 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Photronics by 1.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,888,042 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $35,555,000 after acquiring an additional 26,507 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Photronics by 12.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,258,714 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $26,131,000 after acquiring an additional 135,859 shares during the period. 88.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on PLAB. Singular Research raised Photronics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Photronics in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Photronics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Photronics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.00.

Photronics Stock Up 0.8%

PLAB stock opened at $22.89 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.24. The company has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.00 and a beta of 1.55. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.46 and a fifty-two week high of $31.60.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Han Kyung Park sold 15,000 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.00, for a total transaction of $330,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 103,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,266,000. The trade was a 12.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mitchell G. Tyson sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.04, for a total transaction of $125,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 51,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,300,252.08. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 82,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,800 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

About Photronics

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.