Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 7,911 Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,911 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $248,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PLAB. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Photronics by 88.3% during the third 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. raised its position in shares of Photronics by 64.4% during the fourth 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. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Photronics by 36.5% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,723,540 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $34,833,000 after buying an additional 460,910 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of Photronics by 116.0% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 756,081 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $12,725,000 after buying an additional 406,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Photronics by 74.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 860,890 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $14,274,000 after buying an additional 366,875 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Photronics Stock Performance

Shares of Photronics stock traded down $0.56 on Friday, hitting $25.53. 112,809 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 562,694. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.70 and a beta of 1.40. Photronics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.86 and a 52 week high of $34.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.26.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The semiconductor company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.15 earnings per share 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.