Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.10 EPS

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The semiconductor company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.10, Briefing.com reports. Photronics had a return on equity of 11.09% and a net margin of 14.04%. The company had revenue of $229.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Photronics updated its Q3 guidance to $0.48-54 EPS.

Photronics Trading Up 10.3 %

Shares of PLAB opened at $20.25 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $15.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 3.25 and a current ratio of 3.89. Photronics has a 52-week low of $13.86 and a 52-week high of $25.81. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 1.18.

Institutional Trading of Photronics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PLAB. Raymond James & Associates acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics in the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Photronics by 2.1% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 61,988 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,052,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 53.6% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 32,418 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 11,313 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 53,138 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $902,000 after purchasing an additional 6,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,805,463 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $166,400,000 after purchasing an additional 78,778 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PLAB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities upped their price target on Photronics from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Photronics in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Photronics in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th.

Photronics Company Profile

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Photronics, Inc engages in the provision of photomasks. It manufactures semiconductors and flat-panel displays and is used as masters to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and FPD substrates during the fabrication of integrated circuits, a variety of FPDs and other types of electrical and optical components.