The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Has $769,000 Stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its holdings in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,069 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 3,364 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Photronics were worth $769,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $438,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 28,145 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $694,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Photronics by 65.4% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,434 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 567 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Photronics by 137.2% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,212 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koss Olinger Consulting LLC boosted its position in Photronics by 4.3% in the third quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC now owns 18,714 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $463,000 after buying an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. 88.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on PLAB. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 28th.

Photronics Price Performance

PLAB opened at $26.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.56. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.25 and a fifty-two week high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $222.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.00 million. Photronics had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Photronics 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.