Photronics (PLAB) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Photronics (PLAB) closed at $14.97, marking a -0.86% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.21% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.11%.
Heading into today, shares of the electronics imaging company had lost 17.4% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 13.55% and the S&P 500's loss of 8.08% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Photronics as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.35, up 105.88% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $192.55 million, up 20.52% from the year-ago period.
PLAB's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.49 per share and revenue of $777.9 million. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +67.42% and +17.2%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Photronics. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Photronics currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Photronics currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.11. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.48, which means Photronics is trading at a discount to the group.
The Semiconductor Equipment - Photomasks industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 98, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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