Wall Street Zen Downgrades Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) to Hold

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on PLAB. Craig Hallum reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Photronics in a report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research raised Photronics to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Freedom Capital upgraded Photronics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Photronics from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Photronics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.33.

Photronics Stock Performance

Photronics stock opened at $30.40 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.11. Photronics has a 52 week low of $20.05 and a 52 week high of $56.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 1.35.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.10. Photronics had a net margin of 19.05% and a return on equity of 7.45%. The firm had revenue of $216.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.75 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.51 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Photronics has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.560 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Photronics will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kang Lee sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.70, for a total transaction of $297,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 354,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,539,045. This trade represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Photronics

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics in the first quarter worth about $47,902,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Photronics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $308,586,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in shares of Photronics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,288,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Photronics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,935,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Photronics by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 823,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $33,289,000 after acquiring an additional 202,040 shares in the last quarter. 88.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Photronics

Photronics, Inc (NASDAQ: PLAB) is a manufacturer of photomasks, precision photographic plates used in the semiconductor and flat-panel display manufacturing processes. Photomasks transfer circuit patterns onto silicon wafers and display substrates, making them an important component in the production of integrated circuits, memory devices, flat-panel displays and other electronic products.

The company provides photomasks for a range of semiconductor applications, including advanced logic, foundry and memory devices.