Wall Street Zen Upgrades Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) to Buy

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on PLAB. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Photronics from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Zacks Research raised shares of Photronics to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Photronics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.33.

Photronics Price Performance

Shares of PLAB stock opened at $27.52 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 billion, a PE ratio of 9.69 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.88 and a 200-day moving average of $35.37. Photronics has a one year low of $20.05 and a one year high of $56.00.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.10. Photronics had a net margin of 19.05% and a return on equity of 7.45%. The business had revenue of $216.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.75 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.51 EPS. Photronics’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Photronics has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.560 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Photronics will post 1.90 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Photronics news, Director Kang Lee sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.75, for a total value of $307,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 337,350 shares in the company, valued at $10,373,512.50. This represents a 2.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Han Park sold 9,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.37, for a total value of $288,515.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 66,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,004,420. This represents a 12.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 37,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,114,265 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Photronics

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Photronics in the second quarter valued at approximately $308,586,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics during the first quarter worth $47,902,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Photronics by 32.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 823,488 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $33,289,000 after acquiring an additional 202,040 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics during the second quarter worth $12,374,000. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics during the second quarter worth $12,355,000. 88.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Photronics

Photronics, Inc (NASDAQ: PLAB) is a manufacturer of photomasks, precision quartz and glass plates used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and display panels during the manufacturing process. Its products are essential to the production of integrated circuits and flat-panel displays.

The company provides photomasks for a range of semiconductor applications, including advanced logic, memory and other specialized devices. It also supplies photomasks used in flat-panel display manufacturing, supporting technologies such as liquid-crystal displays and other display formats.