Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Photronics from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Zacks Research raised shares of Photronics to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Photronics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Photronics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.33.

Photronics Price Performance

PLAB opened at $28.35 on Friday. Photronics has a 12 month low of $20.05 and a 12 month high of $56.00. The stock has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $29.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.28.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.10. Photronics had a return on equity of 7.45% and a net margin of 19.05%. The company had revenue of $216.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.75 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Photronics has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.560 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Photronics will post 1.90 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Photronics

In other news, Director Kang Lee sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.70, for a total value of $297,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 354,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,539,045. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Han Park sold 9,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.37, for a total value of $288,515.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 66,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,004,420. This represents a 12.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,000 shares of company stock worth $1,114,265. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics during the second quarter worth $308,586,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Photronics during the first quarter valued at $47,902,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 32.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 823,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $33,289,000 after purchasing an additional 202,040 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Photronics during the 2nd quarter worth about $12,374,000. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Photronics during the second quarter valued at about $12,355,000. 88.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Photronics Company Profile

Photronics, Inc (NASDAQ: PLAB) is a manufacturer of photomasks, precision quartz and glass plates used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and display panels during the manufacturing process. Its products are essential to the production of integrated circuits and flat-panel displays.

The company provides photomasks for a range of semiconductor applications, including advanced logic, memory and other specialized devices. It also supplies photomasks used in flat-panel display manufacturing, supporting technologies such as liquid-crystal displays and other display formats.