52,100 Shares in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) Acquired by Alberta Investment Management Corp

Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 52,100 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,227,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Photronics by 137.2% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,212 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 701 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Photronics by 65.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,434 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Photronics by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Photronics by 76.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Photronics during the fourth quarter valued at about $110,000. Institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 8,750 shares of Photronics stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total transaction of $213,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 572,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,959,240. The trade was a 1.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Han Kyung Park sold 11,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.80, for a total value of $267,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 102,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,439,500. This represents a 9.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 199,000 shares of company stock worth $4,878,810. Insiders own 3.88% of the company’s stock.

Photronics Stock Performance

Photronics stock opened at $21.76 on Friday. Photronics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.25 and a fifty-two week high of $31.60. The stock has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $23.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.85.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company 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.