New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Holdings in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 64,479 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 5,543 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.10% of Photronics worth $2,023,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PLAB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Photronics by 3.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,321,531 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $107,548,000 after acquiring an additional 186,718 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Photronics by 88.3% in the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,560,215 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $31,532,000 after purchasing an additional 731,793 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,397,983 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $43,855,000 after buying an additional 547,510 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Photronics by 0.4% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,115,690 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $22,548,000 after buying an additional 4,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $20,811,000 after buying an additional 159,393 shares during the last quarter. 88.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Photronics Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ PLAB opened at $29.38 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $28.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.03. Photronics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.48 and a 52-week high of $34.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Photronics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd.

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.