Israeli website construction tools company Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX) has become Israel's most valuable company. In the three trading sessions on Wall Street, since the company published its fourth quarter financial results on Wednesday, Wix's share price has risen 26% to a record high $353, giving a market cap of $19.646 billion.
Wix has pushed oncology drug developer NovoCure (Nasdaq: NVCR) down into second place. For many years Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) was Israel's most valuable company with cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) taking over for three years after Teva fell sharply in 2017 and early 2018. Recently solar energy company SolarEdge Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: SEDG), NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) and NovoCure have all had spells at the top before Wix's strong run last week.
Wix held its IPO in 2013 at a share price of $16.5 and company valuation of $600 million - a return of 2040% in less than eight years.
Over the past year Wix, which provides solutions for small businesses needing to set up and operate a website, benefitted from the accelerated shift online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wix founder and CEO Avishai Abrahami sent an internal email today to the company's work force, recounting how an excited employee rushed into his office and told him 'you know how you never look at the share price?' "And he was right, Abrahami wrote, I never look at the share price. But he added, you have to look we have become the number one company in Israel, we've overtaken NICE, Check Point and SolarEdge."
Abrahami added that he is not in competition with those companies and that they even help each other out from time to time, "but it's great to know that for at least one day we are the number one company in Israel."
After publication of Wix's financial results on Wednesday, Wix president and COO Nir Zohar said, "The potential is astronomical, there are so many activities moving onto the internet all the time. Wix solves the problem and concentrates everything in one place."
He added, "Above and beyond that we are expanding to the field with people building sites for others, professionals such as designers and agencies, and that expands our target market in a dramatic way. So while it's true that we are already big today and we marvel at our size, but compared with the business potential, it's only the tip of the iceberg.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 21, 2021
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