Aviva PLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Aviva PLC lowered its holdings in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) by 40.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,600 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 37,254 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Photronics were worth $936,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Skylands Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Skylands Capital LLC now owns 213,850 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,599,000 after acquiring an additional 24,500 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 72.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 37,817 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 15,831 shares during the period. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Photronics by 67.7% during the 4th quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 208,000 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,501,000 after purchasing an additional 84,000 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Photronics by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 358,800 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $6,039,000 after buying an additional 87,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Photronics by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 148,800 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $2,504,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the period. 90.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PLAB. Northland Securities lowered their target price on shares of Photronics from $21.00 to $18.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com began coverage on Photronics in a research report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Photronics in a report on Tuesday, April 11th.

Photronics Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of PLAB opened at $17.37 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 3.25. Photronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.86 and a 1-year high of $25.81. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.67 and a 200 day moving average of $17.11.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 20th. The semiconductor company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. Photronics had a net margin of 13.26% and a return on equity of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $211.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Photronics Profile

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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.