We like to keep an eye on the private companies market by monitoring the handful of platforms offering startup employees a place to exercise stock options. When startups of interest show up there, we pay attention.
Case in point? K Health, the AI-driven digital primary care solution company. Never heard of them? There’s a good chance some of your anonymized medical data is feeding into their black box algorithms, particularly if you are a member of Israel’s Maccabi Health System.
K Health uses the data and AI to analyze to develop profiles of outcomes for more than 300 health conditions. Those profiles contain personal characteristics, like age, sex, as well as other health data. The outcomes are matched to a patient's condition to help doctors understand how a particular condition could progress and what should be down to treat it.
Equitybee is now touting an allocation of employee stock options in the New York-Tel Aviv company, at about $3.19 per share. This comes about two years after K Health raised $132 million in a Series E financing round, at a company valuation of $1.4 billion.
We make no recommendations here. Just reporting what we know.
The week that was…
Ishares MSCI Israel ETF (NYSEARCA:EIS) down 2.7% last week
BlueStar Israel Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:ITEQ) down 2.5%
Ark Israel Innovative Technology ETF (BATS:IZRL) down 2.1%
VanEck Israel ETF (NYSEARCA:ISRA) down 0.7%
ILS down 1.1%, or 1 USD bought you 3.51 shekels
Analysts Do What Analysts Do
Cognyte Software (NASDAQ:CGNT) price target was halved by Stifel, to $3/share from $6 (last price $2.75). No change in the hold rating.
Cyberark Software (NASDAQ:CYBR) got a buy rating from CFRA analysts, who put a price target of $146 on the shares (last price $124.35). “We think the switch to a subscription model is timely for CYBR, as organizations look to cut expenses in the current economic environment, while making progress on their digital transformation initiatives,” they wrote.
Inmode (NASDAQ:INMD) got an overweight rating as Barclays initiated coverage with a $44 target (last price $35.36). Street consensus is a buy rating, with price targets in a range from $44 to $60.
Playtika Holding (NASDAQ:PLTK) remains a neutral rated stock at Citigroup, which trimmed its price target to $10 from $12 (last price $8.24). The Street consensus is more upbeat, expecting the shares to outperform with a target range of $9 to $29.
Daiwa initiated coverage on Solaredge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) with a neutral rating and a $325 price target (last price $310.15). Street consensus rating is outperform, with targets ranging from $245 to $420. Piper Sandler boosted its target to $390 from $325, maintaining its overweight rating. Goldman also raised its target to $416 from $391 while maintaining its buy rating.
Taboola.com (NASDAQ:TBLA) is still a buy at Needham, which raised its price target a buck, to $3.50 (last price $2.65). Consensus is that the shares will outperform, with a price target range of $2.25 to $6.
Insider Sales
Solaredge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) insider Meir Adest, chief product officer, sold 5,000 shares on Dec. 15 for $1,650,995. Per his SEC filing, he controls 150,938 shares, all held directly. Uri Bechor, COO, sold 8,716 shares on Dec, 14 for $2,963,440. Bechor controls 19,406 shares, all held directly.
JFrog (NASDAQ:FROG) insider Frederic Simon, director, sold 45,000 shares on Dec. 14 for $1,050,833. He controls 5,522,134 shares, all held directly.
Exits of Note
Nano Dimension (NASDAQ:NANO) director Saul Simon resigned his position on Dec. 19.
Stock Bloggers Weigh In
Camtek (NASDAQ:CMTK, TLV:CMTK) may be better positioned than others to endure a slowdown in the semiconductor sector, but it doesn’t mean it won’t underperform in 2023, wrote Gary Bourgeault on Seeking Alpha.
The blogger, who seems to be boosting his coverage of Israel tech stocks, thinks that H1 of 2023 is “going to be a defensive one for CAMT.”
Similarly, blogger MarketGyrations ended the week with a missive that their charts suggest CMTK stock has room to go lower, even after halving this year.
“CAMT may seem like a bargain after the price drop, including with multiples lower than competitors, but the stock may be more expensive than it looks.”
Clearmind Medicine (NASDAQ:CMND) was covered by Benzinga’s Lara Goldstein, as a psychedelics company to watch.
She advises keeping an eye on the Tel Aviv maker of next-generation novel drug candidates as its proprietary drug candidate will be used soon in a Phase 1 clinical trial assessing the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).
Last week the biotech received FDA approval for the use of its proprietary MEAI as an alcoholic beverage substitute.
IceCure Medical (NASDAQ:ICCM, TLV:ICCM) gave investors a nice Hanukah gift, jumping 16.4% in Tel Aviv to open the week.
Blogger Larry Ramer took notice on InvestorPlace advised investors to watch the potential revenue impact of the company’s recent FDA trial.
The medtech’s Prosense device was shown to be a “safe and effective” means of treating small kidney lesions.
The Caesarea-based company uses liquid nitrogen to eliminate tumors and says that its treatment solutions are “minimally invasive.”
The treatment for kidney tumors extends its application for benign and malignant breast tumors.
On the numbers side, this is a company with $4.1 million in Sales, though OpEx is high, up 33% in the September quarter.
Monday.Com (NASDAQ:MNDY) was covered on Seeking Alpha by Ahan Vashi, who buried the lede (IMHO) that, going into a potential recession, Monday’s platform expansion “looks very promising as organizations are likely to look for bundled offerings to preserve capital.”
Playtika Holding (NASDAQ:PLTK) has a “compelling valuation, but strong downside price momentum,” in the words of SA blogger Mike Zaccardi.
What worries him is a bearish technical chart on the stock: “Shares are stuck in a protracted downtrend that began right when the stock went public in early 2021. It’s hard to spot any signs of a reversal. There’s support at a downtrend channel line, currently near $7, but that would simply be a spot to lift shorts rather than get aggressively long.
Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS, TLV:SPNS) continues to see limited growth due to FX pressures, as the majority of its business is in Europe.
Those currency pressures have SA blogger Valkyrie Trading Society concerned. A frothy valuation on SPNS shares deflates any sort of compelling case for the stock.
Contrary to that view is blogger Enterprising Investors, which weighs in with the sentiment that Sapiens is an overlooked small-cap with tremendous growth potential. “2023 should bring the company back to a normal growth pace as it should keep organic growth going. It could even profit from delayed orders.”
Wix (NASDAQ:WIX) is viewed by Brett Schafer on The Motley Fool was a breakout candidate.
He wrote positively of the recent layoff/restructuring program expected to save $150 million in annual expenses.
The Tel Aviv-based website software maker is also forecast to be able to gain operating leverage as it grows its top-line revenue, with high gross margins north of 60%.
“By 2025, Wix thinks it can generate $500 million in annual free cash flow as it rightsizes its expenses and continues to ride the SaaS CMS tailwind,” Schafer wrote.
Zim Integrated Shipping (NYSE:ZIM) has the attention of a handful of Seeking Alpha bloggers.
Patrik Mackovych is telling readers that the stock is cheap, as the gap between the share price and tangible book value/share widens.
Blogger Bohdan Kucheriavyi is watching as freight rates are stabilizing after months of depreciation. “If we see flat growth or an improvement in rates for primary trade routes in the next couple of weeks, then we could expect an appreciation of Zim’s shares,” he wrote in a Dec. 20 long ideas piece
Ben Alaimo is watching port congestion as a sign of where Zim stock is going. Less congestion will lead to lower shipping rates, he noted.
Contributor The Asian Investor has concerns about a global recession pushing shipping rates back to the pre-pandemic level of ~$1,000 per 40-foot container. They also warn that new supply coming to market could pressure freight rates further.