By Mark Bern, CPA CFA

If you are new to this series of article I recommend that you take the time to read at least the first article in this series which explains the strategy in detail. If you are interested in how we got to this point with Teva or other quality companies used please refer to my concentrator blog which contains links to all the previous articles in the series.

I’d like to begin with a little summary information about how the strategy is doing overall before I get into the details about Teva (TEVA). After eight months we have collected 12.2 percent of our initial portfolio of $150,000 from selling puts. The total amount collected is $18,354. We have paid a total of $584.50 in commissions and fees, including the recent exercise fee on the put transaction to purchase Teva shares. That results in a total return

Complete Story »

By Ron Sommer:

This past week, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA) announced first quarter 2012 results. Headlines decried the results as “disappointing.” Analyst reactions to this quarterly report and subsequent downgrades reflect nothing less than analyst myopia. There was some fixation on what is characterized as weak Copaxone sales and softness in European sales. What did the analysts have to complain about?

· Profit rose 13% on higher sales

· Sales rose 25%

Teva is the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer by sales and is expanding into the branded proprietary drug market. To build out its branded product line, Teva recently purchased Cephalon (CEPH) for $6.5 billion. The company is also in the midst of a leadership change. Shlomo Yanai left the CEO position as of May 9th and was replaced by Jeremy Levin, a respected industry veteran coming out of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY).

One reason for the gloomy reaction to Teva’s first quarter

Complete Story »

By Stephen Simpson:

There’s no question that Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) rewarded long-term investors with years and years of growth as it became the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer. The biopharma world has changed, though, and so has Teva. Now branded companies like Novartis (NVS) and Sanofi (SNY) are in generics, and generic companies like Teva are in branded drugs. And just for good measure, a few outliers like Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) add devices to the mix, while others like Abbott (ABT) and Covidien (COV) look to split and spin-off their drug businesses.

What’s the point? Well, mostly that Teva probably has to start thinking more and more like Big Pharma if they want to continue to grow the business. It’s hard to imagine that there’s much buying left to do in the generic space (apart, perhaps, from a few select deals in specific markets), but there’s plenty that the company could do in

Complete Story »

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TEVA)

Q1 2012 Earnings Call

May 09, 2012 8:30 am ET

Executives

Kevin Mannix – Director of Investor Relations – Teva North America

Shlomo Yanai – Chief Executive Officer and President

Eyal Desheh – Chief Financial Officer

Jeremy Levin –

William S. Marth – Chief Executive Officer of Teva Americas and President of Teva Americas

Robert Koremans –

Michael Hayden –

Unknown Executive –

Gerard W.M. Van Odijk – Former Chief Executive Officer of Teva Europe and President of Teva Europe

Analysts

Christopher Schott – JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division

Aaron Gal – Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division

Traver A. Davis – Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Corey B. Davis – Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division

David G. Buck – The Buckingham Research Group Incorporated

Gregory B. Gilbert – BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Limor Gruber – Psagot Investment House

Complete Story »

NICE-Systems Ltd. (NICE)

Q1 2012 Earnings Call

May 9, 2012 8:30 a.m. ET

Executives

Marty Cohen – Vice President, Investor Relations

Zeevi Bregman – President and Chief Executive Officer

Dafna Gruber – Chief Financial Officer

Eran Liron – Corporate Vice President, Business Development

Analysts

Shaul Eyal – Oppenheimer & Co.

Shyam Patil – Raymond James

Paul Coster – JPMorgan

Daniel Meron – RBC Capital Markets

Michael Kim – Imperial Capital

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the NICE Systems Conference Call discussing First Quarter 2012 Results and thank you all for holding. All participants are at present in a listen-only mode. Following management’s formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, May 9, 2012.

I would now like to turn this call over to Mr. Marty Cohen, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Marty Cohen

Thank you, operator. With me on the

Complete Story »

By Takeover Analyst:

With Jeremy Levin now CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA), investors can expect more acquisitions for the biotech giant. In this article, I will run you through a DCF model on Teva and then triangulate the result with a review of the fundamentals against Novartis (NVS) and Merck & Co (MRK). I find Teva substantially undervalued even under low growth assumptions.

First, let’s begin with an assumption about the top-line. Teva finished FY2011 with $18.3B in revenue, which represented a 13.6% gain off of the preceding year. I conservatively model 8.5% per annum growth over the next half decade or so. While I believe the company will yield around 200 basis points more, I factor this input into the model for the sake of proving my point.

Moving onto the cost-side of the equation, there are several items to consider: operating expenses, capital expenditures, and taxes. I model cost of goods

Complete Story »

By Bret Jensen:

An increasingly dark tone is starting to settle on the market. Slowing domestic job growth including Friday’s anemic jobs report and two critical elections in Europe over the weekend should make for an interesting Monday. I think it is time to get defensive for a while until we get better domestic economic signals and/or some progress in Europe. One stock I like for turbulent times is Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA).

Possible catalysts for TEVA:
 

• Consensus earnings estimates for FY2012 and FY2013 have ticked up over the last two months.
• The company reports earnings on Wednesday. Estimates for the quarter have come down a few cents over the past three months. This should make it easier for the company to best consensus estimates, which it has done the last three earnings reports.
• Teva and Mylan (MYL) recently settle a dispute around the drug Nuvigil and Teva also won a preliminary court victory

Complete Story »

By Mark Bern, CPA CFA

We’ve tried selling puts only once before on TEVA Pharmaceutical (TEVA) and the contract expired worthless, but we did collect the premiums on the put we sold. But that is part of the strategy: earn cash returns of at least 8 percent per year (preferably 10-12%) until we get the stocks at discounts to the current market price. In this article I will start by reviewing the results of what we have done thus far with this excellent company’s stock and then I will provide my most current recommendation based upon the closing quotes on Wednesday, April 26, 2012. Generally articles are published within 24 hours of submission so the recommendations in my articles should still be close to what is available in the market at the time of publication. I try to always use closing prices because that reduces the opportunity to “cherry pick”

Complete Story »

By Mark Bern, CPA CFA

We’ve tried selling puts only once before on TEVA Pharmaceutical (TEVA) and the contract expired worthless, but we did collect the premiums on the put we sold. But that is part of the strategy: earn cash returns of at least 8 percent per year (preferably 10-12%) until we get the stocks at discounts to the current market price. In this article I will start by reviewing the results of what we have done thus far with this excellent company’s stock and then I will provide my most current recommendation based upon the closing quotes on Wednesday, April 26, 2012. Generally articles are published within 24 hours of submission so the recommendations in my articles should still be close to what is available in the market at the time of publication. I try to always use closing prices because that reduces the opportunity to “cherry pick”

Complete Story »

By AllAboutAlpha.com:

Since the nation’s establishment in 1948, Israel has existed in a perpetual state of conflict. There is little doubt that these conflicts have had a negative impact on the country’s stability and relations. The BBC World Service Country Poll states that 49% of the more than 28,000 interviewed held a negative view on Israel’s influence in the world.

This small nation has, however, experienced astonishing economic growth. Israel is the 40th largest economy in the world, with a GDP of around US$245 billion (putting it ahead of Portugal and Ireland, and just behind Malaysia and Singapore). This is a nation second only to the United States in terms of venture capital funds, with the highest rate of start-up businesses per capita and also the highest ratio of university degrees to population anywhere in the world.

To learn more about the opportunities in Israel, I spoke to Michael Freedman, Executive Director

Complete Story »