Photronics (PLAB) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Photronics (PLAB) closed the most recent trading day at $21.79, moving +0.46% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.13%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.28%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.04%.

Coming into today, shares of the electronics imaging company had gained 6.64% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 13.84%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.55%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Photronics as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Photronics to post earnings of $0.50 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 127.27%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $210 million, up 23.07% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.90 per share and revenue of $818.65 million, which would represent changes of +113.48% and +23.34%, respectively, from the prior year.

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. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Photronics is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Photronics has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.42 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.02, 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 27, which puts it in the top 11% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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