Cellcom Israel Ltd (CEL)

[johnsyn]

Morning Pollux, just saw your post while posting some new DD that upped rating to BUY. Been a lot going on for some time. Simplified as much as possible: Syria and Iran were initially dragging it down, most Israeli stocks get hurt when the fears of war get involved. But then Israel decided to try to lower the cost of living, and CELCOM USED to have monopoly on telecom in Israel, no longer. It really shattered their profits. Then a lot of class action lawsuits happened, charging them with sticking it to their customers with all kinds of extra fees, lost more customers who didn't trust them, and the civil suits won, one by one. Granted, some of their new competitors were named in the suits, so people didn't know where to run.
Then the government decided to bust up monopoly even more, doesn't allow institutions to hold too many shares of too many big companies, which meant they had to sell off shares, little consideration given other than to not get slammed with fines and penalties, so they dumped as fast as possible to meet the deadlines.
The latest outlooks that the company stated from a few months ago said the profits would continue to decline, primarily from the payouts of the lawsuits, added with a cut in dividends, brought the pps down to where it is now. Even with subtracting the 20% foreign withholding tax, it still pays a decent dividend and yes, is very affordable right now.