Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) Shares Gap Up on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $17.21, but opened at $18.92. Photronics shares last traded at $19.43, with a volume of 343,889 shares traded.

The semiconductor company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.10. Photronics had a return on equity of 11.09% and a net margin of 14.04%. The business had revenue of $229.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PLAB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Northland Securities raised their price objective on Photronics from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Thursday. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Photronics in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Photronics in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 2.1% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,238,591 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $149,689,000 after buying an additional 208,239 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 4.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,730,787 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $69,165,000 after buying an additional 187,394 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 1.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,485,908 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $74,376,000 after buying an additional 59,693 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Photronics by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,172,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $42,319,000 after purchasing an additional 27,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in Photronics by 48.4% in the third quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,473,074 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $21,536,000 after purchasing an additional 480,125 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.41% of the company’s stock.

Photronics Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.16. The company has a quick ratio of 3.25, a current ratio of 3.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a PE ratio of 10.18 and a beta of 1.18.

About Photronics

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Photronics, Inc engages in the provision of photomasks. It manufactures semiconductors and flat-panel displays and is used as masters to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and FPD substrates during the fabrication of integrated circuits, a variety of FPDs and other types of electrical and optical components.