Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) Shares Gap Down to $28.26

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $28.26, but opened at $23.63. Photronics shares last traded at $24.20, with a volume of 198,635 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Photronics Stock Down 7.3 %

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a PE ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Photronics

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Photronics by 4.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,715,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $161,861,000 after acquiring an additional 265,533 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Photronics by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,769,232 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $149,613,000 after purchasing an additional 379,593 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Photronics by 13.7% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,714,964 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $48,568,000 after purchasing an additional 207,049 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Photronics by 64.4% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,397,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $43,855,000 after purchasing an additional 547,510 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Photronics by 0.4% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,115,690 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $22,548,000 after buying an additional 4,222 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% 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.