Written by: Aaron Katsman | May 22, 2008
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
If “Initiative 97″ makes it on the ballot in the fall, citizens of Seattle will be asked to approve a measure that would prohibit the city from investing its pension funds in corporations that benefit from the Iraq war, or companies that provide material support to the Israeli government within the so-called “occupied territories.” The opposition to the initiative is being led by StandWithUs.org. It strikes me as a bit odd that a measure that seems to be intended to protest the U.S. Iraq policy also includes divestment from Israel.
Why the connection?
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Written by: Aaron Katsman | May 20, 2008
Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com
Elbit Systems (ESLT), one of our favorite Israeli stocks that trades in the U.S., blew past earnings estimates and produced another record quarter. The Israeli defense company, posted revenues of $616.1 million, up from $403.6 million in the first quarter of 2007.
Gross profit for Q1 ‘08 increased by 62.6% to $168.4 million (27.3% of revenues), as compared with gross profit of $103.5 million (25.7% of revenues) in Q1 ’07. Margins continued to be strong and the company now can boast that more than 80% of revenues come from outside of Israel, meaning that they have done a bang up job in diversifying their revenue stream.
What really makes the report interesting is the backlog of orders in the pipeline. Elbit reports $4.9 billion in backlog, with about 69% of the Company’s backlog as of March 31, 2008, scheduled to be performed during the upcoming three quarters of 2008 and during 2009. Giddy up! Obviously this bodes very well for the upcoming year, and has the potential to help fuel the stock higher.
Commenting on the earnings, CEO Joseph Ackerman said, “I am pleased to report another quarter of strong growth with record financial results. We also had a record quarter of over $914 million in bookings, enabling our backlog to reach just shy of the $5 billion milestone. (Continue »)
