Written by: Zack Miller | February 24, 2008
Stock of the Month: ZRAN
Zoran (Nasdaq: ZRAN), was January’s Stock of the Month as part of our new subscription newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor. You can find out more about the product and the opportunities we cover at www.israelnewsletter.com
Background
Zoran develops and markets integrated circuits (ICs) that provide digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities to a variety of consumer electronic products. These products are used in DVD players, home theatre systems, and digital cameras. The company also develops products for digital video delivery via set-top box or television. The company sells through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) who package them into digital and audio products sold to consumers.
(Continue »)
Comments (2)
Category:
digital tv,
dtv,
newsletter,
semiconductor,
stock of the month,
zran
Tags:
digital camera,
digital tv,
dtv,
dvd,
israel,
israel stocks in US,
semiconductor,
zoran,
zran
Written by: Aaron Katsman | February 22, 2008
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
As we have posted about many times in the past, the word on the street is that Gilat Satellite Networks(GILT) is for sale. The big question after yesterday’s strong earnings report is whether they should accept a potential offer? In fact they have rejected past offers.
Gilat reported really strong earnings and had good things to say about the rest of ‘08. Gilat’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Amiram Levinberg said, “The quarterly and annual results show a thriving core business, with record quarterly and annual revenues. We met our management financial objectives for 2007 with double digit revenue growth of 14% and, excluding the non-cash impairment, an expansion of our operating margin to 6.2% and net income margin to 7.9%.”
Gilat chairman and CEO Amiram Levinberg said, “Our board of directors continues to evaluate a strategic transaction for the company. We expect our board will reach resolution in the coming weeks.”
With a “thriving core business” the question is why sell? Why not keep growing the company organically? With potential acquisition prices rumoured to be at the $11.50 level, and the stock currently trading above $11, investors wouldn’t see much of a premium. Only in the case of Gilat receiving a price that they can’t refuse, should they accept a takeover bid. Otherwise they should keep up the good work they are doing, keep signing deals, and grow the company. If you do that, the stock price will take care of itself.
Disclosure: Author’s fund holds a position in GILT. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 2/22/08.
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.
Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.
Written by: Zack Miller | February 21, 2008
Cimatron (CIMT) was February’s Stock of the Month as part of our new subscription newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor. You can find out more about the product and the opportunities we cover at www.israelnewsletter.com
***********************************************************
Hi Dan, can you tell us what Cimatron does?
Dan Haran, CEO: Cimatron (Nasdaq: CIMT) is in the CAD-CAM arena for manufacturing. When companies manufacture things, they still need a lot of CAD-CAM or Numeric Control (NC). When people have to machine anything (milling, turning, etc.), this all needs to be computer driven.
What do you do for plastic manufacturing?
DH: With plastic-injection molds, it’s quite complex to make the mold. It’s not just two pieces of metal with a cavity. Manufacturers need to inject plastic, cool it, eject the part – the machine to do this is quite a complex machine. Molds have up to 5,000 parts (pins, screws, plates). To design these machines, it’s a very complex design task. Typically, one person designs the product, but another person (usually in another company) designs the molds for each part. Having good software is essential to managing this process. (Continue »)
Written by: Zack Miller | February 19, 2008
Zack Miller
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
As investors in opportunity, we have our tentacles to the ground (to mix metaphors) to see how world events affect our portfolio companies. IOI’s Aaron Katsman wrote recently how trouble in Pakistan could spell good things for NICE Systems (Nasdaq: NICE).
Now, we have an upgrade coming from UBS for NICE on the back of the scandal at Societe Generale. From the research note:
In particular, we view the current regulatory environment as conducive to the sale of recording systems and fraud/compliance solutions. With nearly 50% of 2008 management guidance already in the backlog, and given the strong booking momentum in hand, we see limited downside risk to consensus numbers.
We also read of a new deal signed with Go Daddy this morning to deploy a call center solution for Go Daddy’s 1000+ reps for better insight and metrics into service calls.
It’s hard to say, like NICE did recently, that a global slowdown would actually benefit the firm. In a global slowdown, this firm, like many service providers would most likely get hit as well. The nice thing about NICE though is that its focus on compliance and risk management should help it to weather the storm.
Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in NICE as of 2/18/08.
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
NEW! Introducing Israel Opportunity Investor, our monthly subscription-only newsletter. Stay ahead of the game and make smart decisions in Israel stocks. Go here to learn more.
Zack Miller is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email zack@israelnewsletter.com.
