Insider Selling: Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) CEO Sells 17,500 Shares of Stock

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB - Get Free Report) CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.00, for a total value of $420,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 528,350 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,680,400. The trade was a 3.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Kang Jyh Lee also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, December 19th, Kang Jyh Lee sold 20,000 shares of Photronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.27, for a total transaction of $505,400.00.

Photronics Stock Down 1.4 %

Photronics stock traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $23.92. The company had a trading volume of 300,624 shares, compared to its average volume of 495,209. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 1.41. Photronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.25 and a 1 year high of $34.16. The business has a fifty day moving average of $24.62 and a 200 day moving average of $24.42.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $222.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company's revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on PLAB. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised Photronics from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 28th.

Institutional Trading of Photronics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PLAB. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in Photronics during the 3rd quarter worth $252,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Photronics by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,745,165 shares of the semiconductor company's stock valued at $43,217,000 after buying an additional 85,160 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 4.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 530,401 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $13,133,000 after buying an additional 24,834 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Photronics by 36.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 135,208 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $3,348,000 after buying an additional 35,825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Photronics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $730,000. 88.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Photronics Company 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.