What’s Israel’s most valuable publicly-traded company abroad? For the first time in years, it’s an interesting question.
For a brief period last week. Solar Edge, a Herzliya-based maker of smart energy solutions, had a higher market capitalization than Check Point Software Technologies for the first time. Solar Edge jumped as much as 18% in early trading Wednesday on news that the two Democratic candidates in Georgia’s runoff Senate election would win, giving the Democrats control of Congress. Solar energy companies rose that day on expectations of favorable renewable energy legislation. On Friday, the stock reached an all-time high of $374.10.
However, Check Point has risen about 5% since Thursday, and the two company’s stocks have been neck and neck in terms of valuations. In early morning trading Monday in New York, Solar Edge was at $351.04 per share, giving it a market cap of $17.98 billion, while Check Point, at $132.70, had a market cap of $18.61b. The difference in market cap is about 3%.
IT security giant Check Point Software has long been one of Israel’s most prominent tech companies, serving for many as a representative of the ethos of the Start-up Nation both domestically and abroad. Founded in 1993 by Gil Shwed and two partners based on an idea Shwed had while serving in the IDF’s elite 8200 unit, the company now has more than 5,000 employees in Tel Aviv and 70 other locations worldwide. Check Point reported $1.4b. in revenues in 2019.
Solar Edge is far less well-known. The company was founded in 2006, and went public on the Nasdaq in 2015. Its most prominent client is Tesla Motors, for whom it developed a storage and backup power solution for the residential solar market. The company has offices in the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as Israel. Its 2019 revenues were the same as Check Point’s, $1.4b.
Check Point inherited the title of Israel’s most valuable company in August 2017, when its market cap overtook that of Teva Pharmaceuticals for the first time. Teva had been the largest company in Israel for nearly 20 years prior, and was worth as much as $70b. until a string of bad decisions and market setbacks led to a state of crisis at the company once known as Israel’s biggest success story.
After Check Point and Solar Edge, the most valuable publicly-traded Israeli companies on the Nasdaq are Novocure ($17.3b.), a developer of cancer treatments; data surveillance giant Nice Systems ($17.2b.); and web development software company Wix ($14.7b.).
On the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Nice Systems is the largest company, with a NIS 54.5b. market cap, followed by Teva, valued at NIS 38b.