Those who invested in this Israeli stock tripled their money since the beginning of the year

The first half of the year, which ends today (Sun), was excellent for Wall Street stock investors. The leading indices continued the positive trend of last year and broke records – some several times. Since the beginning of the year, the Nasdaq index climbed by 17%, the S&P 500 index rose by about 15% and the Dow Jones index settled for a more modest increase of 3.7%.

And what about the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange? The picture there is less glamorous compared to Wall Street’s flagship indices. As of the end of trading last Thursday (June 27), the Tel Aviv 35 index rose by about 6% since the beginning of the year, while the Tel Aviv 90 index lost about 3.6%. The TA 125 index rose by 3.2%. Among the industry indices, the Tel Aviv Marketing Chains Index presented an impressive return of approximately 15% since the beginning of the year, alongside the Technology Index, which climbed approximately 10%. On the other hand, Tel Aviv Real Estate lost approximately 10% in value. At the same time, the Israeli bank index added about 4% to its value since the beginning of the year.

Just before the end of the first half of 2024, these are the outstanding success stories and major disappointments of the first half.

the leading Israeli company on Wall Street

An investor who purchased a share of the technology company at the end of 2023 Beamer Imaging More than tripled the value of his holding in the first half – the share price jumped 260% from $1.45 to $5.22. However, the stock has already touched significantly higher prices during the period.

Beamer of Herzliya, under the management of the founder Sharon Carmel, provides solutions for video transmission of high quality and efficiency. In February, it made headlines when it reported a collaboration with the chip giant Nvidia , in which the two will assist in the transition to a new video format. Within a few days the stock jumped 8 times in huge trading cycles. The company took advantage of the tide to raise capital in the amount of 12 million dollars, at a price of 7 dollars per share. Since then, the stock has weakened as mentioned, but it is still trading at a price higher than its initial public offering price on the Nasdaq in 2023. The company’s value currently stands at around $73 million, compared to $48 million at the offering and over $200 million at the February peak.

Another stock from Israel that stood out favorably in the quarter is the maritime transport company Zim which recovered from the low of the end of 2023 and increased since the beginning of the year by 124%, against the background of an increase in sea freight prices and a return to profit and dividend distribution.

The disappointing Israeli on Wall Street

After a drop of about 63% in 2023, it looks like a stock Liveperson It has not reached the bottom yet, and since the beginning of the year it has fallen another 83.1%, and the company’s value has plunged to a two-decade low. LivePerson is an American software company that is traded on Nasdaq and Tel Aviv and also operates in Israel. It provides SaaS solutions for organizations to manage their customer service. Last year, CEO-founder Robert Locasio left and was replaced by John Savino. This year the company expects a drop of over 20% in revenues and up to 42% in EBITDA (earnings excluding interest, tax, depreciation and amortization).

Another disappointing stock since the beginning of the year is the solar energy technology company, solaredge which is struggling to return to growth, and the edtech company Productivity Network which was affected by policy changes of Microsoft – Both lost over 70%. But the sharpest decline among the Israelis on Wall Street was recorded by the tiny company Jeff’s Brands from the field of online commerce, which erased over 90% of its value to a current value of 2.6 million dollars.

The leading stock in the 125 index

stock Electron Registers the highest return in the Tel Aviv 125 index since the beginning of the year, 91.5%, despite the fact that it has traded down in recent weeks. The dream company, which wants to charge electric vehicles while driving them on the road, entered the index in the last update after its stock rose sharply. Today the market value Hers comes to about NIS 1.9 billion. Other reports of Electreon were regarding its selection as the “sole supplier” of Chutsa Israel for the wireless charging project in Matron, and on the other hand about filing a class action against it alleging a delay in reporting on the establishment of an industrial park in China.

Another star in the stock market is the defense company Next Vision which has increased since the beginning of the year by 83.1% and its executives took advantage of the increases to sell shares.

The disappointing stock in the 125 index

The disappointing stock of the index was also mentioned as one of the disappointing Israeli stocks on Wall Street – this is the dual edtech company Productivity Network which fell by 72.2% in Tel Aviv. Microsoft, a prominent customer in recent years, announced two changes that hurt Prion’s results – the first relates to the pricing of advertising on the Bing search engine and the second to the removal of publishers from its distribution network. As a result, Prion reduced its forecast and is expected to end 2024 With a decrease in revenues and EBITDA, due to the decrease in activity, Perion is laying off over 5% of its employees – about 35 employees, most of them in Israel.

Another prominent negative return in the index is that of Mitronics , the manufacturer of swimming pool cleaning robots. The stock has fallen 65% since the beginning of the year.

The stocks that stunned the world

The S&P 500 broke records this year, and the increases in the index are led by a company Super Micro Computer which shows a return of over 188% since the beginning of the year. The company from San Jose develops unique servers for AI applications and is traded at a current value of 45.9 billion dollars. The increases in the stock come against the background of the fact that the company provides hardware infrastructures that are required for AI technologies, so it is one of the beneficiaries of the hype surrounding the subject.

The central representative of AI is the chip giant Nvidia, which also stood out with a 149% jump from the beginning of 2024 against the background of the increase in results. It recently became for a while the largest company on Wall Street, when it overtook Microsoft and Apple and rose above a value of 3 trillion dollars. However, question marks are currently rising in the market as to how much Nvidia will be able to justify the increase in value over time.

The field is hot, the stock is sinking

The chip industry is one of the strongest in the capital market this year, but precisely who was the giant in the field in the past – Intel – Shows one of the weakest returns in the S&P 500 index. Intel shares have weakened since the beginning of 2024 by 38.8% and Intel’s market value currently stands at $131 billion. In recent years, the company has been operating in a strategy of manufacturing also for third parties and is making organizational changes that weigh on its financial results. Intel is the largest employer in Israeli high-tech, but recently it became known about a delay by Intel in establishing its new production plant in Kiryat Gat.

Besides Intel, two other stocks stood out negatively in the American index: the pharmacy chain Walgreens which fell by 53.7% and the fashion company Lululemon with a decrease of 41.6%.

The hottest sector on Wall Street

While the S&P 500 index rose about 15% in the first half of the year, the Nasdaq index associated with technology stocks rose at a higher rate. A similar picture also emerges from looking at the S&P sectoral indices (as published by Fidelity) – the sector that produced the return The highest from the beginning of 2024 is technology, with an increase of 28.4% (an increase of over 200% in the last five years).

Each sector has industries/sub-sectors and the most prominent among them all was chips and chip equipment – with an increase of 72.3% since the beginning of the year (and about 494% in the last five years). The chip industry is benefiting from the rise of AI, and the growing need for chips that will support the various AI applications is increasing its demand.

On the other hand, the sectoral index of the real estate industry in the USA stood out negatively, which was the only one that presented a negative return during this period with a decrease of 5.6%.