Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its holdings in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB – Get Rating) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,426,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 33,260 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.07% of Photronics worth $74,493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Photronics by 2.1% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Photronics by 4.1% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Photronics by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,172,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,319,000 after buying an additional 27,683 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in Photronics by 48.4% during the 3rd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,473,074 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $21,536,000 after buying an additional 480,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Photronics by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 911,698 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $13,329,000 after buying an additional 64,100 shares in the last quarter. 90.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Photronics Stock Up 6.7 %

Shares of PLAB stock opened at $18.36 on Thursday. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $13.86 and a fifty-two week high of $25.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 3.25 and a current ratio of 3.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, a PE ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.13.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PLAB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities lowered Photronics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Photronics in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Photronics in a report on Tuesday, April 11th.

Photronics Company 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.