Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Acquires New Stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 13,659 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PLAB. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Photronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,787,000. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,120,319 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,955,000 after acquiring an additional 257,373 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 799,439 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,893,000 after acquiring an additional 249,222 shares during the period. Kestrel Investment Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Photronics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,163,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Photronics by 118.8% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 367,346 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $8,655,000 after acquiring an additional 199,490 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Photronics news, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 10,000 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.90, for a total transaction of $209,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 552,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,538,890. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Walter M. Fiederowicz sold 5,000 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.79, for a total transaction of $88,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $88,950. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,548 shares of company stock worth $1,093,093. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Photronics Stock Performance

Photronics stock opened at $20.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.01 and a beta of 1.43. Photronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.46 and a 1 year high of $31.60. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.24.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $212.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $210.00 million. Photronics had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 9.10%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict 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.