Insider Selling: Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) CEO Sells 17,500 Shares of Stock

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.00, for a total transaction of $420,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 528,350 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,680,400. This trade represents a 3.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Kang Jyh Lee also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, December 19th, Kang Jyh Lee sold 20,000 shares of Photronics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.27, for a total transaction of $505,400.00.

Photronics Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of PLAB opened at $23.92 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.42. Photronics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $20.25 and a 52-week high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. Photronics had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The company had revenue of $222.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Photronics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 17.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,482,856 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $61,252,000 after buying an additional 364,150 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Photronics by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,368,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,643,000 after acquiring an additional 10,590 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,990,046 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,094,000 after purchasing an additional 275,082 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Photronics by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,745,165 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $43,217,000 after purchasing an additional 85,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Photronics by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,684,647 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $41,560,000 after purchasing an additional 191,809 shares in the last quarter. 88.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PLAB. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 28th.

About Photronics

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.