M&T Bank Corp Invests $252,000 in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Photronics by 3.1% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,735 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Photronics by 65.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,434 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 567 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Photronics by 137.2% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,212 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the period. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC lifted its position in shares of Photronics by 4.3% during the third quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC now owns 18,714 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 2.9% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 31,900 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $787,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on PLAB. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 28th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th.

Photronics Stock Performance

PLAB stock opened at $24.41 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $24.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68 and a beta of 1.41. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.25 and a fifty-two week high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $222.60 million for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.