Written by: Aaron Katsman | September 25, 2007
By Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
In the midst of the Jewish New Year and 3 week long holiday season, food has been playing an essential part in my life. Since I can’t get food out of my mind, I decided to revisit an Israeli food company that has been recently sporting a stock price which has been doing nothing but falling. G. Willi-Food(WILC), one of Israel’s fastest growing food companies and IsraelNewsletter favorite, has been in a freefall of late and yesterday saw a closing price of $5.61. The stock is currently trading at around 18.5 times earnings and with a PEG of 0.85, the stock looks very cheap compared to competitors.
Willi Food continues to execute their business model, and drive their expansion into the US kosher food market. As I have mentioned in the past, the kosher food market is very large and growing rapidly. Look for WILC to continue to profit from this trend for years to come.
In late August the company reduced estimates, but still expects to show revenue growth of between 30-40%. This is still very strong growth and I think the stock has been unfairly punished, and trading in the $5.50-$6.00 makes for an intriguing long-term investment.
Sorry to cut this short but I need to eat. Happy holidays.
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Disclosure: Author’s fund is long WILC as of 9/25/07.
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Aaron Katsman is the 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: Aaron Katsman | September 19, 2007
By Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com
Jacada(JCDA), a leading provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations, yesterday annouced the signing of another deal with a public utility, worth to be an estimated $1 million in revenue. This is great news for Jacada. Jacada continues to sign deals. This is the 4th utility to do a deal with Jacada recently, and add to it the deal with Harrah’s(HET), and Jacada seems to be executing their business model to perfection.
With a market cap of about $73 million, and almost $36 million in cash, Jacada is still flying under Wall Street’s radar, but high profile deals will surely help in getting the company discovered and that should energize the stock price.
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
Disclosure: Author’s fund is long JCDA as of 9/19/07. Author has no positions in any other companies mentioned.
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Aaron Katsman is the 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: Aaron Katsman | September 19, 2007
By Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
Emerging market guru Mark Mobius, continues to gain momentum in his bid to block the sale of Taro Pharmaceuticals(TAROF.pk) to the Indian drug company Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Taro delayed it’s planned shareholder meeting after it became apparent that they couldn’t assure the votes needed to win merger approval. While delay tactics may have worked in the past, new judge Michal Agmon-Gonen, won’t put up with it any longer. She’d fed up and she’s not gonna take it anymore.
Judge Agmon-Gonen schedule a hearing for January 13, 2008. In the event that Taro again postpones its shareholders meeting, the judge said, “If no shareholders meeting is held, the hearing on this date will decide on how Templeton’s(BEN) petition will be heard, without waiting for the results of the shareholders meeting.”
Taro has used every trick under the sun to stall. Taro notified the SEC that the audit of its 2006 financial report by Ernst & Young would be completed soon, and that financials for Q1 and Q2 of 2007 would be ready now. Once the financials are ready, a shareholder meeting could take place in October or November. Surprise, surprise. Now it appears that Taro will not meet these dates either. Taro’s attorney told the judge, “We’re working on it.”
She then went on to take a shot at Taro. “I cannot understand how it is possible to undertake a merger without financial reports. That is a scandal in itself, and contravenes the Companies Law.”
Looks like we have a judge with common sense.
Go Templeton Go!
Please see our Disclaimer HERE.
Disclosure: Author’s fund has no position of any stocks mentioned as of 9/19/07.
Like what you see? Sign up to receive daily updates from IsraelNewsletter here
Aaron Katsman is the 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 | September 3, 2007
Globes article that Gazit is buying more Ormat (ORA). We first reported this back in June when Gazit initiated a 12% stake in the clean-tech energy play. Gazit-Globe president Dori Segal told “Globes” that the company believes that cleantech has a long-term upside, and that it has unreserved confidence in Ormat and its executives.
Interesting interview with NICE Systems (NICE) product manager, Brian Spraetz, on the IP communications industry and what NICE is up to.
Forbes reporting that generic pharmaceuticals giant, TEVA (TEVA), spent over $1M on lobbying in 2007. Specifically, the article mentions that TEVA lobbied on funding for Food and Drug Administration’s generic drug office, patent reform legislation, the children’s health insurance program and trade issues.
Blue Square-Israel (BSI) leaks their intention to build-out a big-box presence in the Health Food/Organics market. Read IsraelNewsletter’s Zack Miller’s recent analysis of the move.
What a roller coaster. Protalix BioTherapeutics (PLX) treats first patient in a Phase III trial of prGCD, a drug in research to treat Gaucher Disease. We’ve seen this stock tank over 40% in last week’s trading.
