Jul. 25 at 4:45 PM
$PLAB PART ONE: With 10-15% market share, PLAB is one of the leaders of the photomask industry. Semiconductor spend in '25 is slated to be near ~200B, approaching ~1T by '30, which is why you see high flying valuations on chip companies. Of course, PLAB benefits from this rise as well, growing revenue from 550M in '19 to 850M in '24. However, PLAB does not benefit from a lofty valuation. PLAB stock price is
$19.50, with a MC ~
$1.14B. TBV is estimated at ~
$19.50, implying the stock trades at a P/TBV ratio of ~1. This is notably lower than the industry median P/TBV of ~3.12. Trading at such a steep discount to BV is typically reserved for companies with poor operations. However, PLAB is deeply profitable. In Q4 2024, PLAB reported a record operating margin of 28.5%. ROE is ~14.29%. Fiscal '24 net income was
$130M. Operating income is closer to
$200M. At 1.14B market cap, it trades at under 6x operating income, among the lowest in the industry.
