The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) indices fell today. The Tel Aviv 25 index fell 0.o4% to 536.27 points, the Tel Aviv 100 fell 0.26% to 563.13 points, and the Tel-Tech fell 1.42% to 395.88 points. Turnover was NIS 603.79 million.
TASE traders ended a positive trading week with slight profit-taking, despite yesterday's rise on Nasdaq.
After the fears aroused by the "people's share" for all TASE investors, quite a few investors were biting their nails as they waited for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA; TASE:TEVA) to publish its financial report this afternoon. Poor financials published by other pharmaceutical companies (Andrx (NasdaqNM:ADRX) published a very weak report just last night) made the waiting for Teva particularly tense.
Salvation came this afternoon. Teva published its report, and it was impossible not to hear the sighs of relief echoing from the trading rooms. Teva again published record results for the third quarter. Net profit was $252 million, or $0.38 per share, compared with the analysts' consensus of $0.35. Revenue grew by 53% to $1.25 billion.
For all those who feared for Teva's future, Teva sweetened its report by raising its guidance for 2004 as a whole. It raised its revenue forecast to at least $4.7 billion, $200 million more than in its previous forecast. It also raised its earnings per share projection from $1.35-1.37 to $1.43-1.44.
Leader DS analyst Uri Hershkovitz says the revised guidance means that Teva expects earnings per share of $0.38-0.39 for the fourth quarter. He predicts that the analysts' consensus for 2005 will be raised in the wake of the higher guidance for the fourth quarter.
Teva's share resumed its positive trend in response to the excellent financial report. It rose 1.6% in Tel Aviv on a huge turnover of almost NIS 190 million, almost a third of the session's total turnover. Teva also rose 2.4% at the opening on Nasdaq.
Another dual-listed share that has burdened the market lately and recovered today was Given Imaging (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE:GIVN). After losing a third of its value in the past three weeks, following the publication of disappointing results for the third quarter, the share opened today with a positive arbitrage gap of 2.4%. The share shot up well beyond the arbitrage gap, rising 5.9% today.
I read Super Sol's (NYSE:SSLTF.PK; TASE:SAE) financial report today, and I found it difficult to find anything good in it. The company posted an operating profit margin of only 1.1% on turnover in the third quarter. Sales fell 2.9% to NIS 1.57 billion, its gross profit margin remained stuck, and its net profit was only NIS 4 million - a negligible profit for a company with such a large turnover.
Super-Sol's share fell 3.8% in response to the report. Blue Square Israel (NYSE:BSI; TASE:BSI), Super-Sol's competitor which has outperformed it each quarter, fell a more modest 0.8%. Investors apparently believe that Blue Square will again outperform its competitor from IDB Holding Corp. (TASE:IDBH).
Tower Semiconductor's (Nasdaq:TSEM; TASE:TSEM) bonds continued to erode today, and their yields continued to soar. "Globes" reported on the company's condition at length earlier this week, stating that its huge $1.5 billion investment in it Fab 2 will never repay itself, unless there is a big surprise. Since publishing its financial report, and especially following the "Globes" article, its share has continued to slide. Tower's shares fell 11.7% today, and have lost 42.6% since publishing its financial report two weeks ago.
Tower's bonds are also falling. They lost another 11.8% today, and their yield now stands at 39.7%, index-linked, which gives them "junk bond" status. The bonds of no other TASE 100 company can compare.
Rabintex Industries (TASE:RABN) today confirmed a "Globes" report about the sale of the controlling interest in the company. "Globes" reported yesterday that First Israel Mezzanine Investors (FIMI) was negotiating to buy the holding of the company's controlling shareholder, the Rabinovich family. Rabintex's share rose 6.4% today.
Dankner Investments (TASE:DKNR) rose 24.2% today to NIS 11.46, after Delek Real Estate published an offer to purchase all of Dankner Investments publicly held shares at NIS 10.93 a share.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 4, 2004