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

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In the latest trading session, Photronics (PLAB - Free Report) closed at $9.98, marking a -0.2% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.12%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.13%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.64%.

Heading into today, shares of the electronics imaging company had gained 7.76% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 6.28% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.4% in that time.

PLAB will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be December 5, 2018. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.17, up 112.5% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $137.20 million, up 13.42% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for PLAB should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. PLAB is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that PLAB has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.62 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.92.

We can also see that PLAB currently has a PEG ratio of 2.06. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. PLAB's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2 as of yesterday's close.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Photomasks industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, which puts it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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