Introduction: TEVA has an unhappy Hanukah
When you've been a corporate schlemiel, lumps of coal (or the equivalent) may be what you get under the Hanukah bush in Israel. Mass (and imminent) layoffs, many more plant closings a full dividend suspension; and no bonus for you!
That's new CEO Kare Schultz's Rx for Teva (TEVA).
In stereotypical fashion, Wall Street fell all over itself to mark up TEVA's shares. They closed Monday at $18.52, way up from the recent low of $10.85, a level first reached on the way up in the spring of 2000. With 1.01 B shares outstanding, that gives TEVA an apparent market cap of just under $19 B. That sounds reasonable on its face given annual sales above $20 B, and the CEO's plan to cut annual operating expenses to $13 B by 2019.
