Arizona State Retirement System Increases Stock Holdings in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 3.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Photronics were worth $438,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of PLAB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Photronics by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,715,429 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $161,861,000 after buying an additional 265,533 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in Photronics by 13.7% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,714,964 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $48,568,000 after purchasing an additional 207,049 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Photronics by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 885,863 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $27,790,000 after purchasing an additional 30,163 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Photronics by 225.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 840,538 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,805,000 after purchasing an additional 582,664 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Photronics by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 546,708 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $15,483,000 after purchasing an additional 10,509 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th.

Photronics Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ PLAB opened at $23.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.18. Photronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.03 and a 52 week high of $34.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.87 and a beta of 1.40.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.05). Photronics had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 16.22%. The firm had revenue of $211.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $225.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. Photronics’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal 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.