IsraelNewsletter.com News Brief 7/28/08

Written by: Aaron Katsman | July 28, 2008

Before we get to the Israel news briefs, I want to send a big congrats out to Seattle Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus, on his induction, yesterday, to the Baseball Hall of Fame. My childhood was spent listening to him do play-by-play and nobody does it better. His “Fly away”, “My o My”, and ” A very pleasant good afternoon everybody on a glorious day out for baseball, the mountain is out in all her majesty” are calls that will forever be ingrained in my memory as well as millions of baseball fans who have listened to him over the years.

Now to the news:

Elbit Systems(ESLT) looks like it will have a strong quarter. Globes reports that the company is looking to make between $8-11 million more than they had thought as short-term delivery contracts rose.

Did I mention that today is my birthday?

The Jpost is reporting that Israeli chip maker Metalink (MTLK) is about to cut a lot of jobs as they try and reduce their burn rate. The report also says that the company is reviewing ’strategic alternatives’ which sounds like a potential sale maybe in the works.

Over at Seeking Alpha, Pierre Daillie interviews well respected investor Larry Sarbit, who speaks highly of the Israeli company Ituran (ITRN). Commenting on the the company that provides location sensing devices, Sarbit says, “It’s a cash machine. Once you get this thing in the car, it just spills out cash and they probably got pricing built into this. In other words,  if they increase the price of monitoring by a buck a year, do you think a guy who can afford a Mercedes in Argentina is going to give a damn?”

Silicom (SILC) is out with earnings and they say that they were impacted both by a drop in the Shekel/USD exchange rate as well as a tough spending environment for their customers. CEO Shaike Orbach said, “On the one hand, our revenues for the quarter suffered from both the difficult market environment, which has affected the revenues of many players in the network appliance value chain, and from a significant reduction in orders from our largest customer. We have been impacted by the customers new appliance configurations, which reflect its decision to begin offering our copper BYPASS cards as an optional add-on rather than as a standard component, as well as by its low quarterly volume of orders for fiber cards.

Aaron Katsman, IsraelNewsletter.com

Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in ESLT,ITRN,SILC. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 7/28/08.

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.

 

Market Blues

Written by: Aaron Katsman | July 8, 2008

Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

Red Red Red- That’s what the tape shows,
the market is going down everyone knows;
Step up and buy stocks off we go,
Homer, what would you say to a bank failure, Doh!

Sub-prime, oil, inflation and a weak dollar are to blame,
A year ago wasn’t the situation the same?
What goes up must come down was Newtons claim to fame,
It looks like only the shorts will be left standing at the end of the game.

Israeli stocks in the US have been shown the door,
but at current valuations isn’t there a floor?
Bears point to Iran and potential war,
Bulls say deal after deal signed, a rally we are in for.

Silicom (SILC), Alvarion (ALVR), Zoran (ZRAN), Amdocs (DOX) the list has no end,
It doesn’t look like the reversal is just around the bend;
Global banks are stuck they have no money to lend,
It will take time for all the carnage to mend.

But be optimistic there are deals to be had,
What’s great today used to be bad.
If you hit refresh on your portfolio you are sure to be sad,
Don’t fret a few good days and buying stocks will again be a popular fad.

Disclosure: Author’s fund has a position in SILC, DOX, ZRAN, ALVR. He has no position in any other stock mentioned as of 7/08/08.

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.

 

Company Uncovered: Silicom (SILC)

Written by: Zack Miller | May 21, 2008

An interview with Silicom (SILC) was featured as part of our new subscription newsletter, Israel Opportunity Investor. You can find out more about the product and10gbpicx.jpg the opportunities we cover at www.israelnewsletter.com

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Can you tell us a bit about the history of Silicom (Nasdaq: SILC)?
Avi Eizenman, Founder and Chairman of the Board: When we founded the company in 1987, our original idea for the firm was that we would be a fabless IC company. We were profitable almost from day one and this is something that’s in the fabric of the company. (Continue »)