PLABPhotronics, Inc.
Is the business good?
The checks split: earnings fully cash-backed (1.8×), but margins compressing.
Mixed fundamental signals. Nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year health from the filings.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Operating profit is falling even as sales grow, costs are outrunning the top line.
Margin-driven, fat margins on slower asset turns. ROE 12% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is PLAB?
Photronics, Inc. earns 25% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 16 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 22%
Operating margin · Semiconductor Equipment & Materials median 11% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.82×
Cash conversion · 1.42× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +1.1%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 10% |
| FY2021 | 14% |
| FY2022 | 26% |
| FY2023 | 28% |
| FY2024 | 26% |
| FY2025 | 25% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 34%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 22%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 19%
- Free cash flow margin
- 13%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 1.4%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $867M
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $110M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $165M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 25%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Semiconductor Equipment & Materials
Ranks #1 of 18 by RyuScore