Teacher Retirement System of Texas Sells 32,410 Shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lessened its stake in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 26.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,878 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 32,410 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.14% of Photronics worth $2,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in Photronics by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,368,450 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,643,000 after purchasing an additional 10,590 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Photronics by 5.1% during the 3rd 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Photronics by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,007,582 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $23,739,000 after buying an additional 40,579 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Photronics by 45.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 799,439 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $18,893,000 after acquiring an additional 249,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Needham Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Photronics by 6.7% in the third quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC now owns 762,500 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $18,880,000 after acquiring an additional 48,200 shares during the period. 88.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Photronics

In other Photronics news, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.10, for a total transaction of $421,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 510,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,311,485. The trade was a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Han Kyung Park sold 11,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.63, for a total value of $277,087.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 118,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,906,340. This represents a 8.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 77,500 shares of company stock worth $1,829,138 over the last 90 days. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Photronics Stock Performance

Shares of PLAB stock opened at $21.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.37 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $22.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.49. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.61 and a fifty-two week high of $31.60.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.05. Photronics had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The business had revenue of $212.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $210.00 million. 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 year.

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.