Tectonic Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,268 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the period. Tectonic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Photronics were worth $878,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hodges Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Photronics by 38.4% during the fourth quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 210,975 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $4,970,000 after acquiring an additional 58,590 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Photronics during the 4th quarter worth $110,000. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 76.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,467 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 1,506 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Photronics by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 57,015 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,343,000 after acquiring an additional 1,333 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Photronics in the fourth quarter worth about $298,000. 88.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Photronics Trading Up 1.5 %

PLAB opened at $22.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.93 and a beta of 1.37. Photronics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.25 and a 12 month high of $34.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $24.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.06.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. Photronics had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The business had revenue of $222.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Photronics

In related news, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.27, for a total transaction of $505,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 524,600 shares in the company, valued at $13,256,642. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Adam M. Lewis sold 19,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.11, for a total value of $476,172.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 22,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $536,447.50. This trade represents a 47.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months. Corporate insiders own 3.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, DA Davidson upped their price target 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.

Photronics 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.