Another week and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) share price continues to fall. Yesterday, Teva's share price began the week on Wall Street by falling 2.78% to $7.69, giving a market cap of $8.4 billion. The share price is down another 1.76% in premarket trading. Last week the share price lost 14.5% and it is down nearly 90% since its peak in 2015.
Once the "share of the nation," Teva's ignominious fall is expressed in the growing number of Israeli companies that are becoming more valuable than it. Yesterday, it was the turn of business systems and billing provider Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) to overtake Teva. Although Amdocs share price fell 0.60% on NYSE yesterday to $63.15, the Ra'anana based company still closed with a market cap of $8.66 billion, well above Teva's $8.4 billion.
Last week, Israeli business software systems provider NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) overtook Teva. NICE has a market cap of $9.1 billion after its share price has risen nearly 40% this year.
Teva lost its title as Israel's most valuable company some 18 months ago to cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), which today has a market cap of $17.9 billion, more than double that of Teva. The next Israeli company in line to overtake Teva is DIY website company Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX), which has a market cap of $7.26 billion.
It is by no means clear that Teva has hit its bottom price with Morgan Stanley cutting its price target for the Israeli pharmaceutical company to just $6.
On the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Teva has also seen its market cap overtaken by Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) as well as NICE System. Check Point and Amdocs are not traded on the TASE.
Teva's current woes can be traced back to the ill-fated $40 billion acquisition of Allergan's Actavis generics division in 2015, which has saddled Teva with $27 billion in debt as US generics prices plummet following government pressure on 'overcharging.' Teva also faces potentially expensive litigation in the US for price-fixing and the opioid addiction scandal. In addition, the patent on Teva's blockbuster Copaxone multiple sclerosis treatment has expired and annual revenue, which had peaked at $4 billion, is falling fast. On top of all these troubles, President Donald Trump is still complaining that generic drug prices in the US are unfairly high.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 23, 2019
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