Insider Selling: Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) EVP Sells 63,000 Shares of Stock

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) EVP Christopher J. Progler sold 63,000 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.85, for a total transaction of $1,565,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,446,275.10. This trade represents a 22.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Photronics Trading Down 1.5 %

NASDAQ:PLAB traded down $0.37 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $24.04. The stock had a trading volume of 2,343,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 497,189. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.50 and a beta of 1.41. Photronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.25 and a 52 week high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. Photronics had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 15.07%. The company had revenue of $222.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PLAB. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 4.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 70,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,694,000 after acquiring an additional 3,217 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Photronics by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 73,350 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,826,000 after purchasing an additional 8,372 shares in the last quarter. Meros Investment Management LP increased its position in shares of Photronics by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Meros Investment Management LP now owns 476,395 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $11,796,000 after purchasing an additional 25,471 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Photronics by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,745,165 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $43,217,000 after buying an additional 85,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics in the third quarter valued at $252,000. Institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on PLAB. DA Davidson upped their target price on Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 28th.

Photronics Company 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.