Insider Selling: Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) EVP Sells 25,000 Shares of Stock

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) EVP Christopher Progler sold 25,000 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.78, for a total transaction of $894,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 165,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,924,845.98. The trade was a 13.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Photronics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PLAB traded down $2.39 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $34.36. 1,894,026 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,871,182. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.10. The stock has a market cap of $2.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.00 and a beta of 1.54. Photronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.46 and a 1-year high of $39.80.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 10th. The semiconductor company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $215.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $204.54 million. Photronics had a net margin of 16.06% and a return on equity of 7.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. Photronics has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.510-0.590 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on PLAB shares. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Photronics from $30.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Craig Hallum boosted their target price on Photronics from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Photronics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Photronics in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Photronics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PLAB. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Photronics by 699.0% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,305,610 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $52,914,000 after purchasing an additional 2,017,052 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,607,874 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,106,000 after purchasing an additional 383,355 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Photronics during the third quarter worth $8,416,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Photronics by 8.8% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,196,267 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $45,595,000 after purchasing an additional 177,380 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Photronics in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,462,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

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.