The positive sentiment towards stocks connected to the semiconductor industry has led to a sharp rise in the share price of a lesser-known Israeli company traded in New York: Ceva (Nasdaq: CEVA). Since the low that it reached in late March (in line with the most recent low in the SOX semiconductor index), Ceva’s share price has risen 68% in less than a month, of which 17% was recorded on Friday, when the market responded positively to the financials of chip maker Intel, and the optimism spread to the sector as a whole.

After the rise on Friday on higher than average volume, Ceva closed at $28.9, giving the company a market cap of $804 million. The share price is still a long way below the peak it reached in early 2021, when it stood at over $74, and the company’s market cap was over $1.6 billion.

Since then, the stock has known ups and downs, but it has not returned to its peak levels. 2025 was a year that its investors will want to forget. Ceva fell 30%, partly because of a secondary offering in November when it raised $60 million at a price of $19.5 per share, which represented a 17% discount on the market price at the time. The decline in its share price led Ceva to be relegated from the S&P Small Cap 600 Index, but, as mentioned, the price has since recovered, and investors in the offering have made a 48% gain on paper.

Mysterious customer and positive recommendations

Ceva, headed by Amir Panush, develops technology for semiconductor design. It receives licensing fees for the technology and royalties on sales of the final product containing it. It mainly specializes in wireless connectivity such as Bluetoooth and WiFi. Its technology is incorporated into a wide range of products, such as smart earphones, smart home solutions, telephones, PCs, and so on.

Within the past few months, Ceva has announced two important new customers: Microchip Technology (Nasdaq: MCHP), which is incorporating Ceva solutions in AI products, and another customer the name of which was not disclosed but which is one of the world’s three largest personal computer manufacturers. Ceva also recently reported strategic collaboration with Japanese chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics Corporation under which Ceva will provide the connectivity technology that will be incorporated in the Japanese company’s new microcontrollers.

Ceva is due to release its first quarter financials on May 11. The consensus analysts’ estimate is revenue of $26.1 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.02. This represents growth in revenue and a decline in profit in comparison with the corresponding quarter of 2025.

For 2026 as a whole, the consensus estimate is growth of 10% in revenue to $121 million and a rise in earnings per share from $0.42 last year to $0.50.

Ceva employs 424 people, 311 of them in research and development. Most of the employees are based in Europe and the Middle East, including in Ra’anana in Israel. CEO Panush’s compensation cost in 2025 totaled $4.7 million, 80% of which was stock-based compensation. On the release of the company’s 2025 financials, Panush said, ""As AI increasingly moves into real-world devices, we believe the industry is entering the era of Physical AI. With leadership across connectivity, sensing and inference, record Wi-Fi and cellular IoT shipments, and more than 20 billion Ceva-powered devices shipped to date, we enter 2026 in a position of strength."

Seven analysts cover Ceva. All are positive on the stock, but it is not certain whether they have not managed to update their forecasts amid the rapid rise in the company’s share price, or whether the rise has exhausted the potential. At present the average premium embodied in the analysts’ price targets is 5.9% according to "The Wall Street Journal" data.

Two months ago, UBS began to cover Ceva, with a "Buy" rating and a price target of $27, which represented a premium at the time of 34%, but which the market price has since overtaken. UBS analyst Natalia Winkler wrote that Ceva’s field of wireless connectivity would continue to benefit from the growth trend in the number of devices connected to AI, and predicted a rise in the company’s revenue from royalties arising from AI computing.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 27, 2026.

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