Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) share price fell 7.38% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange today after the share price lost about 11% on Wall Street on Thursday and Friday. The share price has now lost 87% of its value since its peak in July 2015 shortly following the announcement that it was buying Allergan's Actavis generics division for $40 billion. From nearly $70 billion, the market cap is now only worth $9.5 billion.
From being the 'share of the nation" and by very far the biggest Israeli company, Teva is now only the fourth largest Israeli publicly traded company. The largest (not traded on the TASE) is Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) with a market cap of $16.8 billion (NIS 60.9 billion). This is followed by Israel's two largest banks, Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) and Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) with market caps of NIS 36.4 billion and NIS 34.8 billion, respectively. Teva has a market cap of NIS 34.7 billion. Close behind are NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) with a market cap of NIS 31.3 billion and Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) (not traded on TASE) with a market cap of $8.26 billion (NIS 29.6 billion).
The downward momentum follows a lawsuit filed against Teva last month for price fixing of generics as well as pending lawsuits for contributing to opioid addiction. Market sources estimate these suits could cost Teva up to $4 billion, a large amount for a company already saddled with a net debt of $26.7 billion.
Analysts have been slashing their target prices and recommendations for Teva. Last week UBS cut its target price from $22 to $12 and Merrill Lynch Bank of America cut its target price from $19 to $9. "Reuters" reports that three months ago, six analysts had positive recommendations for Teva, 15 were neutral and two were negative. Today, four are positive, 19 are neutral and three are negative.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 2, 2019
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