Photronics, Inc., including its affiliated entities, operates as a global supplier focused on the production and distribution of photomask goods and associated ...
Photronics, Inc. is a specialized semiconductor-equipment and electronic-materials company focused on photomasks, also called reticles. Founded in 1969 in Connecticut by Constantine Macricostas as Photronic Labs, the company changed its name to Photronics, Inc. in 1990 and became publicly traded in 1987. Its headquarters are located at 15 Secor Road ...Photronics, Inc. is a specialized semiconductor-equipment and electronic-materials company focused on photomasks, also called reticles. Founded in 1969 in Connecticut by Constantine Macricostas as Photronic Labs, the company changed its name to Photronics, Inc. in 1990 and became publicly traded in 1987. Its headquarters are located at 15 Secor Road in Brookfield, Connecticut, and its shares trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol PLAB.
Photomasks are precision-engineered plates containing microscopic circuit or display patterns. During semiconductor manufacturing, these patterns are transferred onto silicon wafers through photolithography. Similar technologies are used to manufacture flat-panel displays and other advanced electronic or optical products. Photronics supplies products for a wide range of technology nodes, from mature and mainstream processes to advanced semiconductor applications. Its offerings support logic, foundry, memory, specialty-device, and display customers. The company also provides related engineering, technical-support, customer-service, and development capabilities.
The business operates through a globally distributed manufacturing and service network spanning the United States, Taiwan, Korea, China, and Europe. This geographic footprint allows Photronics to locate production and support near major semiconductor and display manufacturing clusters. Customers include integrated-circuit manufacturers, foundries, designers, flat-panel-display producers, and other high-performance electronics companies. The company competes primarily on mask quality, defect control, pattern accuracy, delivery reliability, process technology, manufacturing capacity, and its ability to support customers at increasingly demanding resolutions.
Photronics is a capital-intensive manufacturer because photomask production requires sophisticated lithography, inspection, metrology, cleaning, and data-processing equipment. Capital expenditures therefore represent an important part of its cost structure and investment program. Based on the supplied trailing-twelve-month financial snapshot, capital expenditure was approximately 21.6% of revenue, while capital expenditure was about 65.9% of operating cash flow. These figures indicate ongoing investment in production capacity and technology. The same snapshot showed gross margin of approximately 33.8%, EBITDA margin of 37.2%, operating margin of 22.9%, and net margin of 18.5%.
The supplied data reported approximately 1,908 full-time employees, placing the company in the 1,001-2,000 employee category. Photronics reported a strong liquidity position, including a current ratio of approximately 5.05 and a quick ratio of approximately 4.69, while debt-to-equity was very low at approximately 0.003. Its trailing price-to-earnings ratio was about 11.96, although market values and valuation ratios change with the share price and financial reporting period. The company reported no trailing dividend in the supplied data, indicating that shareholder returns have primarily depended on business performance and stock-price appreciation rather than regular cash dividends.
Dr. Frank Lee became Chief Executive Officer in May 2022 and joined the board of directors. Under its leadership, Photronics aims to maintain its position as an independent, global photomask supplier by expanding advanced technology capabilities, improving manufacturing efficiency, supporting customers locally, and investing in next-generation semiconductor and display applications. Key long-term opportunities include growth in artificial intelligence hardware, advanced computing, automotive electronics, communications, specialty semiconductors, and high-resolution displays. Important risks include semiconductor-cycle volatility, customer concentration, technology transitions, substantial capital requirements, international operating complexity, pricing pressure, and competition from other photomask manufacturers.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$849.3M
-2.0%
+2.9%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$136.4M
+4.4%
-8.0%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+35.3%
-3.1%
+6.0%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+24.5%
-4.0%
+4.8%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+16.1%
+6.5%
-10.6%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$59.7M
-54.3%
+3102.0%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+7.0%
-53.3%
+3011.4%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
0.5%
-75.2%
-2.4%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
5.37x
+5.9%
-2.1%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Photronics Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ted Moreau, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Ted Moreau: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our review of Photronics Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. Joining me this morning are George Macricostas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Eric Rivera, President and Chief Financial Officer; and Frank Lee, Senior Executive, Asia. The press release issued earlier this morning, along with the presentation materials accompanying our remarks is available on the Investor Relations section of our website and in the Form 8-K filed with the SEC this morning. This call includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause Photronics results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the forward-looking statements disclosure included in our earnings release and in our most recent 10-K and subsequent filings. In the coming months, we will be participating in the following investor conferences: Three Part Advisors in Chicago, Lake Street Capital in New York and the CEO Summit at SEMICON West in San Francisco and SEMICON Europe in Munich. With that, I will now turn the call over to George.
George Macricostas: Thank you, Ted, and good morning, everyone. Total fiscal Q3 revenue of $216 million increased 3% year-over-year and was above the high end of our guidance range. Our fiscal third quarter results reflect the recovery of some of the semiconductor design releases that were delayed and pushed out of our fiscal second quarter. We began to recognize some of this recovery during the month of May as we had previously communicated during our Q2 earnings call. This gradual recovery continued through the remainder of fiscal Q3. As discussed during our prior earnings call, we indicated that delays in new semiconductor design releases were driven by several factors, including elevated fab utilization rates, memory constraints and geopolitical uncertainty. While these factors continue to affect the photomask industry, some design releases have moved into production. With semiconductor wafer utilization rates remaining high, fabs are prioritizing higher profitability projects and expanding capacity at higher technology nodes. These node migration actions, especially at 28-nanometer, 22-nanometer and 14-nanometer, are occurring across a broad set of customers in different geographic locations. Node migration and a sequential improvement in high-end business conditions benefited our high-end IC business, which recorded a record 44% of IC's $155 million in revenue. Our ongoing regionalized investments in the U.S. and Korea remain on track. At our Allen …
