Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Position in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 334,581 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,808 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.53% of Photronics worth $7,883,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. James Investment Research Inc. increased its holdings in Photronics by 84.9% during the 4th quarter. James Investment Research Inc. now owns 42,587 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 19,549 shares during the last quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Photronics in the fourth quarter worth $3,472,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 376,726 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $8,876,000 after buying an additional 44,602 shares during the last quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Photronics by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 37,268 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Photronics by 38.4% during the 4th quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 210,975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $4,970,000 after acquiring an additional 58,590 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Photronics

In other news, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 8,750 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total value of $213,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 572,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,959,240. The trade was a 1.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Adam M. Lewis sold 19,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.11, for a total transaction of $476,172.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 22,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $536,447.50. This represents a 47.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 199,000 shares of company stock worth $4,878,810 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Photronics Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PLAB opened at $20.84 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $23.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.85. Photronics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $20.25 and a 52-week high of $31.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.97 and a beta of 1.37.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.05. Photronics had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 15.07%. The business had revenue of $212.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $210.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.48 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Photronics Company 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.