Teva loses more ground

Teva Photo: Reuters
Teva Photo: Reuters

The declines have moderated but the Israeli pharmaceutical company's share price has fallen nearly 46% in the last four trading sessions on Wall Street.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) share price continues its downward spiral albeit at a far more modest pace. Yesterday on Wall Street the Israeli pharmaceutical company's share price fell another 1.61% to $18.29, giving a market cap of just $18.29 billion. This means that in the last four NYSE sessions, since Teva published its second quarter results on Thursday, the share price has nearly 46% of its value.

In its second quarter results, Teva reported a $6 billion GAAP net-loss, cut its guidance for the third quarter and cut its dividend by 75% and announced that it is in the process of laying off 7,000 people worldwide and shutting down 15 factories. In all probability there will be no more than 350 layoffs in Israel.

Teva may not yet have bottomed out. Earlier this week, investment bank Morgan Stanley cut its target price for Teva from $36 to $16. The new price target still implies a 13% downside. If that scenario were realized then after years of being Israel's most valuable company by far, Teva would lose the title to IT security company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP).

Two international rating agencies have downgraded their rating for Teva's debt. Moody's lowered its rating from Baa2 to Baa3, and Fitch lowered its rating from BBB to BBB minus, one level higher than junk bonds.

In after-hours trading Teva's share price fell another 0.22% or $0.04 to $18.25.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 9, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Teva Photo: Reuters
Teva Photo: Reuters
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