At the end of last week, Zacks Investment Research issued two warm recommendations for network security shares. The first, a "Strong Buy" recommendation, was for VeriSign (Nasdaq:VRSN), while the second, a "Buy" recommendation, was for Check Point (Nasdaq:CHKP).
Why? Because both are making the most rapid progress in their field. Special emphasis was placed on Check Point's Zone Labs as the technology spearhead. Now, what do you think of that?
The Check Point share's position is no different from that of Alvarion's (Nasdaq:ALVR; TASE:ALVR), where a huge gap has also opened up between Wall Street and Main Street.
Why did the share rise so strongly on Friday? The rise could be partly attributed to a long list of articles about WiMAX, and its acceptance by the global communications community as the best solution for last mile access in wireless broadband connectivity.
That's something Alvarion CEO Zvi Slonimsky said ages ago. Today, the sentiment is being propagated on Main Street by the likes of Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) and Nokia (NYSE; LSE; HEX:NOK).
The word WiMAX reminds the average Israeli investor that this company has always had one ear to the ground and one eye fixed firmly on the future.
But the truth of the matter is that the share rose last week because of Canadian investor website the Bellwether Report. On Friday, the Bellwether Report published its daily list of the four most promising companies on Nasdaq, which were Via Net. Works Inc. (Nasdaq: VNWI), Streicher Mobile Fueling Inc. (Nasdaq:FUEL), Alvarion, and Beacon Power Corp (Nasdaq:BCON).
A few leading Israeli companies made important announcements over the Shavuot holiday weekend.
Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), together with HP and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), announced that they had successfully completed the industry's largest scalability test for telecommunications providers with Amdocs's systems.
The test means that major telecommunications companies, using Amdocs software, can constantly adapt themselves to changing market conditions.
NDS Group (Nasdaq:NNDS) took another step towards consolidating its relationship with Samsung Electronics. NDS announced the launch of its XTV Ready Program to promote the use of peripheral devices using NDS's integrated XTV digital video recording (DVR) platform. Samsung Electronics has joined the program as its first partner.
Elron Electronic Industries (Nasdaq:ELRN; TASE:ELRN) announced the completion of its sale of Oren Semiconductor, a 41% affiliate of Elron, by Zoran Corp. (Nasdaq:ZRAN) , a 17% shareholder of Oren.
Elron received proceeds with a value of approximately $20 million from the transaction consisting of approximately $12.5 million in cash and the balance in Zoran securities, based on Zoran's share price on the completion date of the transaction.
Elron will record a $16 million capital gain on the sale, and will hold $7.5 million in Zoran shares.
Once again, Elron has proved it is continuing to generate value for its shareholders. The share is apparently invulnerable to the fluctuations plaguing other shares. It has risen steadily since the crisis of late 2002. More accurately put, the share doesn't have the exposure to volatility that its compatriots have.
As for Zoran, the story is that the US Federal Communications Commission has decided that by March 2006, all new mid-sized television sets (25-36 inch) must be able to receive both analog and digital signals.
That means that all medium-sized TVs will have to be digital television (DTV)-ready.
Zoran has a high-definition TV (HDTV) driver that is particularly suited to this type of television set. That, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons why Zoran acquired Oren from Elron, as Oren has a component that can aid the installation process.
Zoran rose over 40% in May.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, June 14, 2005