Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Purchases New Shares in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,911 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $248,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PLAB. First Dallas Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Photronics during the third quarter valued at about $716,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Photronics by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 827,315 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $25,953,000 after acquiring an additional 139,734 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in Photronics by 187.6% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 169,834 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,432,000 after acquiring an additional 110,792 shares in the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ purchased a new stake in shares of Photronics in the third quarter valued at approximately $422,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Photronics by 18.3% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,029,747 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $20,811,000 after buying an additional 159,393 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 lowered Photronics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd.

Photronics Trading Down 2.1 %

PLAB traded down $0.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $25.53. 112,809 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 562,694. The company has a market cap of $1.62 billion, a PE ratio of 11.70 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $29.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.26. Photronics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.86 and a 1-year high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The semiconductor company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $216.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $220.00 million. Photronics had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 15.34%. Photronics’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current 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.