47,059 Shares in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) Acquired by Raymond James & Associates

Raymond James & Associates purchased a new stake in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 47,059 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,476,000. Raymond James & Associates owned approximately 0.08% of Photronics at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Photronics by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,419,540 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $268,720,000 after acquiring an additional 86,792 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Photronics by 3.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,321,531 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $107,548,000 after purchasing an additional 186,718 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 1.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,485,908 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $74,376,000 after purchasing an additional 59,693 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,172,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,319,000 after purchasing an additional 27,683 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Photronics by 36.5% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,723,540 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $34,833,000 after buying an additional 460,910 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Photronics Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of PLAB opened at $26.09 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.26. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.70 and a beta of 1.40. Photronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.86 and a 52 week high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The semiconductor company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.01). Photronics had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 15.34%. The firm had revenue of $216.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $220.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. Photronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Photronics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd.

Photronics 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.