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Photronics (PLAB) Q1 Earnings Miss Estimates, Revenues Up Y/Y

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Photronics (PLAB - Free Report) reported first-quarter fiscal 2024 non-GAAP earnings of 48 cents per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.04% and increasing 20% year over year.

Revenues of $216.3 million inched up 2.5% year over year.

Quarter Details

Integrated Circuit revenues declined 4% sequentially but increased 1% year over year to $157.6 million. The top line benefited from the strong revenue performance of high-end IC masks (using 28 nanometer and smaller technology), which rose 6% sequentially. However, mainstream revenues declined 9%.

FPD revenues rose 8% year over year to $58.7 million. Sequentially, revenues decreased 7%. Photronics’ high-end revenues increased 11% year over year.

Photronics, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

 

Photronics, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Photronics, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Photronics, Inc. Quote

 

First-quarter 2024 gross margin expanded 60 basis points (bps) year over year to 36.6%.

Research & development expenses, as a percentage of revenues, were flat year over year to 1.6%. However, sales and marketing expenses, as a percentage of revenues, increased 50 bps year over year to 8.5%.

Operating income was $57.5 million, up 2.7% year over year. Operating margin expanded 10 bps year over year to 26.6%.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow

As of Jan 28, 2024, cash and cash equivalents were $521.5 million compared with $512.2 million as of Oct 31, 2023. Long-term debt was $3 million.

Cash generated from operating activities was $41.5 million and cash invested in organic growth through capital expenditures was $43.3 million. A government incentive of $1.1 million was also received for the investments made.

Guidance

For the second quarter of fiscal 2024, Photronics expects revenues between $226 million and $236 million.

Earnings are expected between 50 cents and 58 cents per share.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Photronics has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Photronics’s shares have lost 14.3% year to date compared with the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s increase of 6.7%.

Here are some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the broader sector.

Agilent Technologies (A - Free Report) , ACM Research (ACMR - Free Report) and Bandwidth (BAND - Free Report) are some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the broader sector.

All three stocks have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Agilent Technologies’ shares have declined 2.7% year to date. A is scheduled to release first-quarter 2024 results on Feb 27.

ACM Research’s shares have declined 2.1% year to date. ACMR is set to report its fourth-quarter 2023 results on Feb 28.

Bandwidth’s shares have declined 8.2% year to date. BAND is set to report its fourth-quarter 2023 results on Feb 28.


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