Followers | 145 |
Posts | 27566 |
Boards Moderated | 3 |
Alias Born | 02/07/2004 |
Thursday, September 28, 2006 5:59:34 AM
NICE CEO Haim Shani joined the company in early 2001 from Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT), where he ran the company’s Israeli branch. Shani, it can now be said, took over NICE during a severe crisis, fixed and improved the company and turned into a leader with a rosy future. Investors happily paid for this. What does this mean? At some point, when investors realized who the man was and what he could do, they set a permanent premium on the share. When a share is traded at a premium for years, it’s good for investors, employees, and management; they all benefit. From $3.50 in early October 2002, NICE is now traded at $27.30.
P/e ratios of 24 for 2006 and 20 for 2007 are now considered high. Nevertheless, 10 of the 15 analysts covering NICE give the share a “Buy” recommendation, and the other five rate it at “Hold”. Oscar Gruss analyst Ronny Biran gives its “Buy” recommendation with a target price fo $31.
NICE competes against Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT) subsidiary Verint Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT). In terms of numbers the two companies are quite similar, and were also so in the past, until late 2004 Verint traded at a much higher premium and values than NICE. However, their relative situations subsequently reversed. NICE is now traded at values 30% higher than those of Verint, whereas in 2003 and 2004, Verint was traded at as much as five times the value of NICE. According to the analysts’ consensus, Verint will report a net profit of $42 million on $380 million in sales in 2007. This means a 420% increase in profit, compared with 2004, and a 96% increase in revenue. The share has nevertheless fallen 17% since 2005.
NICE, in contrast, has seen its sales rise 115% over the same period from $224.3 million to $483 million. The company’s net profit will rise 171% from $24.5 million in 2004 to an analysts’ consensus of $66.5 million. The share has risen 140% since the beginning of 2005.
What creates such a difference between the shares of NICE and Verint? Only investors’ confidence in management. It took more than two years for the market to realize that NICE has changed direction, and the premium is the response to the promises made and met. If we look at the multiples predicted for 2006 and 2007 for the two companies, they appear quite similar. It’s true that NICE’s growth rate over the past three years has been higher than Verint’s, but that’s not enough to justify a 17% drop in Verint’s share and a 140% rise in NICE’s.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000137412&fid=1052
Recent NICE News
- NICE Named the Conversational Intelligence Market Leader in 2024 Opus Research Intelliview Report • Business Wire • 05/09/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Provides Dial-in Details for its First Quarter 2024 Results Teleconference • Business Wire • 05/09/2024 09:30:00 AM
- NICE Actimize Recognized as Category Leader in the Chartis 2024 CLM Solutions for Corporate and Investment Banking Vendor Landscape Report • Business Wire • 05/08/2024 12:00:00 PM
- Cincinnati Emergency Communication Center Leverages NICE Inform Elite for Digital Transformation to Improve Operations • Business Wire • 05/02/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Positioned as Highest-Scoring in 2024 Quadrant Knowledge Solutions SPARK Matrix AML Report • Business Wire • 05/01/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Positioned #1 in the Inaugural 2024 Chartis Financial Crime and Compliance50 Report • Business Wire • 04/30/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Positioned as a Leading Luminary in Financial Crime Technology in Celent’s 2024 Watchlist Screening Report • Business Wire • 04/18/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Wins 2024 FinTech Breakthrough Award for “Best AML Solution” Highlighting AI-Focused Offerings • Business Wire • 04/17/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Announces New Integrated Fraud Management Platform Delivering Pervasive AI Across Fraud Prevention • Business Wire • 04/09/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Honored for Best Transaction Monitoring Solution by Regulation Asia’s 2023 Excellence Awards • Business Wire • 04/04/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE CXone AI-Driven Workforce Engagement Management Receives TMC’s Future of Work Agent Experience Award • Business Wire • 04/03/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Receives Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Customer Value Leadership Award • Business Wire • 04/02/2024 12:00:00 PM
- Triple Impact Connections Increases its Digital CX Capabilities with CXone • Business Wire • 03/28/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Named a Leader in the 2024 Aragon Research Globe™ for Conversational AI in the Intelligent Contact Center • Business Wire • 03/27/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Recognized for European AI Product Innovation Industry Excellence • Business Wire • 03/27/2024 11:30:00 AM
- NICE Launches Next Generation of Enlighten Copilot, Delivering AI-Driven Augmentation to The Entire CX Workforce • Business Wire • 03/26/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Delivers Major CX AI Milestone with Enlighten Managing 100 Million Customer Interactions Per Month • Business Wire • 03/25/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Unveils Enlighten XM, A Next Generation AI Contextual Memory Powering Customer Interactions • Business Wire • 03/25/2024 11:30:00 AM
- NICE Enlighten AutoSummary Wins 2024 BIG Innovation Award for Contact Center Innovation • Business Wire • 03/21/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Recognized as Best Digital Transformation Partner Company by 2024 Global Banking & Finance Review Awards • Business Wire • 03/20/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Leads Five Best-in-Class Rankings Across Critical Surveillance Categories in Datos Insights Impact Report • Business Wire • 03/19/2024 12:00:00 PM
- iQor Harnesses NICE CXone to Drive Digital Transformation in CX • Business Wire • 03/12/2024 12:00:00 PM
- NICE Expands Its Presence in Japan with Availability of CXone in Osaka • Business Wire • 03/07/2024 01:00:00 PM
- iQor Leverages NICE CXone to Optimize CX in the Energy and Utility Sectors • Business Wire • 03/05/2024 03:01:00 PM
- NICE Actimize Launches ARCHIVE-X, a Comprehensive Communications Archiving and Records Management SaaS Solution • Business Wire • 03/05/2024 01:00:00 PM
Avant Technologies Equipping AI-Managed Data Center with High Performance Computing Systems • AVAI • May 10, 2024 8:00 AM
VAYK Discloses Strategic Conversation on Potential Acquisition of $4 Million Home Service Business • VAYK • May 9, 2024 9:00 AM
Bantec's Howco Awarded $4.19 Million Dollar U.S. Department of Defense Contract • BANT • May 8, 2024 10:00 AM
Element79 Gold Corp Successfully Closes Maverick Springs Option Agreement • ELEM • May 8, 2024 9:05 AM
Kona Gold Beverages, Inc. Achieves April Revenues Exceeding $586,000 • KGKG • May 8, 2024 8:30 AM
Epazz plans to spin off Galaxy Batteries Inc. • EPAZ • May 8, 2024 7:05 AM