Cramer updates his takes on all 32 portfolio stocks and grades earnings reports
2024-08-14 20:11:00+00:00 - Scroll down for original article
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Here's a rapid-fire update on all 32 stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust, the portfolio we use for the CNBC Investing Club. During the August Monthly Meeting on Wednesday, Jim also offered grades on companies that have reported results so far this earnings season. Apple : This stock continues to prove the naysayers wrong. Just look at the recent quarterly results , in which the company handily beat analysts' earnings expectations. A big concern of investors — Apple's business in China — ended up not being as bad as many feared. Management also discussed its artificial intelligence efforts at length during the quarterly call, which made us more optimistic about future growth prospects with the nascent tech. On Wednesday, Jim gave Apple an A rating for the quarter, and maintained his "own, don't trade" thesis on shares. Abbott Laboratories : If not for the baby formula litigation overhang — which Jim argued will eventually be looked back on as overblown — Abbott's ability to deliver consistent growth within the pharmaceutical industry would command more attention. Still, Abbott's quarter deserves an A grade. Its continuous glucose monitoring device FreeStyle Libre is taking share from rival Dexcom , and its nutrition business is a good one. We'll have to wait and see on Abbott's next formula trial, which begins in September, but its business fundamentals are intact. Advanced Micro Devices : AMD's quarter validated our decision to restart a stake in the chipmaker last month, but the stock does not seem to reflect what we know about its business. On the PC side, it is taking share from Intel . On the AI chip side, it is proving to be the No. 2 option to market leader and fellow Club holding Nvidia. The truth is Intel is in trouble and Nvidia has more business than it can handle, so the winner is AMD. Amazon : The e-commerce and cloud giant did not deliver a perfect quarter — we're calling it a B — but it was hardly as messy as the market reaction suggested. Its guidance on the retail business is primarily what spooked investors, but executives may have been intentionally conservative. That's why we felt comfortable adding to our position Monday. Broadcom : There's room to own multiple AI chip stocks, as we do with Broadcom alongside Nvidia and AMD. When the market was dumping AI stocks seemingly en masse, we stepped in to add to our Broadcom position at around $141 a share on Aug. 2. Broadcom's next quarterly report in early September will provide the latest look at its custom AI chip, networking and software businesses. We like where they are on all three. Best Buy: Jim said that the PC refresh cycle will be a boon for shares of the electronics retailer. Sales for Best Buy should increase as more customers come into stores to upgrade their older devices. AI-infused PCs could be an extra nudge for users to upgrade their older models as well. We will get management's updated expectations when the company releases quarterly earnings on Aug. 29. Costco Wholesale : While Costco's earnings report is still more than a month away, it's a no-worries situation. The retailer is still perfectly situated for this moment thanks its focus on lowering prices of products for its members. The stock has been trading in the $800s for more than two months now. Could it be time for a breakout? Salesforce : We'll get the enterprise software firm's latest numbers on Aug. 28, and it's unclear whether that report will be any better than its suboptimal one May 29, which sent the stuck tumbling. We trimmed some Salesforce on July 29 given the tough operating environment for enterprise software. As of now, Salesforce's AI push hasn't seemed to matter, and looming is its annual Dreamforce conference in September, an important event for dealmaking. Coterra Energy : As long as natural gas prices are super low, Coterra will struggle to deliver A-worthy results. CEO Tom Jorden has the producer operating efficiently, but commodity prices weigh heavily on Coterra's stock price. With the presidential election looming, there's no reason to own any more oil-and-gas stocks other than Coterra. DuPont: This stock is getting the turnaround story it needed, Jim said, citing the company's forthcoming split into three publicly traded businesses . "You have a C-student who blossomed into an A student with Dupont," he said, citing its recent earnings report. If an investor doesn't own the chemicals maker prior to the spin off – expected sometime in the next two years –- then they should get in now before shares surge. Danaher : The stock has had a nice run lately, but Danaher's quarter on July 23 warrants an A grade that is reminiscent of the days before its business in China went south and the initial public offering market went dormant. While those headwinds were significant, Danaher remains one of the best-run firms on Earth. Disney: Jim liked the quarter because the company's streaming business finally turned a profit. Despite weakness in Disney's theme parks, the Club would be buyers if the entertainment giant's shares declined significantly. There's plenty of reason to be upbeat on the stock after earnings. Just look at how the box office is coming back, with the enormous success of franchises like "Inside Out 2" and "Deadpool & Wolverine." Dover: This company has really improved its business mix over the past quarter, as management strides to expand into fast-growing end markets such as data centers. Jim praised Dover's recent acquisitions of Michigan-based Marshall Excelsior and Dutch firm Demaco. "I like the new Dover a heck of a lot more than the old one," Jim said, giving the firm's earnings release an A rating. Estee Lauder: Jim said the beauty stock was dead money, citing the firm's ongoing struggle in its China market. Shares of the cosmetics retailer are down roughly 38% year to date, compared to the S & P 500's 14% gain. This is exactly why the Club sold some Estee Lauder stock last month. We wanted to get smaller in an underperforming stock to free up cash for better opportunities. Eaton: Shares should be higher as the industrial name sits more than 13% below its intraday record highs in late May. It's even more surprising after the company's stellar beat-and-raise quarter on Aug. 1, which Jim placed in the A category. Wall Street doesn't appreciate Eaton enough for its hefty businesses in the aerospace and automotive sectors. GE Healthcare : While the medical device maker's quarterly results did not wow us, they still offered enough reasons to look beyond its temporary China woes. We give it a B grade. Lower interest rates should make financing more affordable for its expensive MRI and CT machines, helping sales. Admittedly, the GE Healthcare story is not as clean as we thought it would be, but the stock is trying to claw its way back. Alphabet : The Google parent lands in the disappointing C camp, partly due to all that's happened since its July 23 report. A judge ruled the company has built an illegal monopoly in the search-engine market, and now there are reports the Justice Department may ask the court to consider a breakup as the remedy. With the company seemingly never able to understand what Wall Street wants, perhaps a breakup would be a gift to shareholders after all, Jim said. Honeywell International: This stock continues to disappoint. CEO Vimal Kapur has not refined the industrial conglomerate's sprawling portfolio enough toward more profitable and faster-growing businesses. Jim gave the company's quarterly earnings report a C rating, citing management's lower profit guidance. We're holding on to the stock for now, but our patience is waning after several quarters of little growth. "I have a limit on how much nonsense I can take," Jim said. Linde: The industrial gas maker's recent earnings put it in Jim's A rating for quarterly results. He praised Linde for its stable end markets, which allows the company to consistently deliver beats on the top and bottom lines. Shares of Linde are flat on Wednesday. Eli Lilly : Without a doubt, Eli Lilly has so far r eported the best quarter in the portfolio . Demand for the company's GLP-1 drugs — Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss — is off the charts, and now supply is starting to catch up. Lilly also is aggressively conducting studies to show the wide-ranging health benefits of GLP-1s for conditions such as sleep apnea, which should expand access to more patients. The "growth stock" label is usually applied to tech firms, but it absolutely fits Eli Lilly. Meta Platforms : Not far behind Lilly in the A-grade camp is Meta. Mark Zuckerberg is ahead of the curve in monetizing the Instagram parent's investment in Nvidia's AI chips, boosting both ad-targeting capabilities and overall engagement. Its chatbot to rival ChatGPT, known as Meta AI, is quite good, too. There's all this concern on Wall Street about efficient AI spending, but that's exactly what Zuckerberg is doing at Meta. Morgan Stanley: The Wall Street giant has great growth prospects because of its investment banking division. We saw this during quarterly results — rated a B by Jim — when revenues for that business surged. This segment should pick up even further once the Federal Reserve lowers borrowing costs. In the meantime, it pays to stay in the financial stock, with Morgan Stanley's more than 4% dividend yield. Microsoft: Investors didn't like that the company's cloud segment, Azure, missed on revenue growth last quarter. But that doesn't mean Microsoft's cloud business isn't fantastic, Jim said. He also touted its other AI-related offerings like generative AI assistant Copilot. Still, Microsoft ultimately received a B because management gave us little information regarding its new AI-integrated PCs during the call. Nvidia : Rightly or wrongly, the AI chip king's report on Aug. 28 will be viewed as a pivotal event for the market. The AI investment theme is not as universally loved as it once was, but Nvidia is still our favorite way to play it. Volatility will continue to surround the stock, as we witnessed with its steep multiweek pullback from July 10 to Aug. 7. Our "own it, don't trade it" mantra holds true during those periods, though. Nextracker : The maker of solar-tracking technology indicated that projects are taking longer to be completed, meaning its still-healthy backlog will be converted into revenue at a slower pace than in years past. That's why it lands a disappointing C grade, despite its actual quarterly results being solid. But given we took this position knowing it was more speculative and long term, we're not overly concerned. In fact, we used its earnings-related weakness to add to our position Aug. 5. Palo Alto Networks: The company's upcoming quarterly report Monday might be the moment when management returns to its pattern of exceeding expectations and boosting projections. We certainly hope that's the case. But commentary around Palo Alto's platformization strategy, which previously led to a cut in full-year revenue guidance back in February, will be especially important to investors this quarter. If the stock declines significantly on earnings, we will consider another buy because of consistent demand for cybersecurity offerings. Procter & Gamble : The reason we were so willing to trim back our P & G position during its recent run to all-time highs is that the company's quarter was C quality due in large part to issues in China. It deservedly fell on the results, but when recession fears washed over Wall Street a few days later, investors flocked to classic defensive names like P & G, erasing its earnings-related losses and more. We were happy to let some stock go. Starbucks : With Chipotle's Brian Niccol set to take over as CEO next month , the focus for investors is what he plans to do to right the ship. Was Tuesday's nearly 25% surge on the news a bit excessive? Sure. We'll see where the stock settles at in the near term, but Niccol made investors a lot of money during his time at Chipotle, and we expect that to be the case at Starbucks. We want to be around for the upside. Constellation Brands: The Modelo parent's quarter on July 3 deserves a B grade due primarily to the continued strength of its beer portfolio. It's been so strong recently that the company has had to spend to boost production capacity, a high-quality problem. And yet the stock has been hurt by selling pressure from the founding Sands family and persistent weakness in its wine-and-spirits business. There's just too much cash flow to say goodbye to the stock, despite its poor performance. Stanley Black & Decker: This stock was one of the Club's top performers since the July Monthly Meeting. If Stanley Black & Decker shares climb above the $100 level, however, we will trim some of our position. The stock is down 2% Wednesday, at $95 apiece. Jim gave the toolmaker's earnings an A because of its improved balance sheet and nice margin expansion. TJX Companies : Like Costco, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods is perfectly suited for this deal-hungry moment. It reports in a week and, as always, be prepared for some funky trading once the results are out. The stock has been known to trade lower even when it's a high-quality report. Executives' commentary on inventory, the secret behind TJX's success, will be key. Wells Fargo: If you don't own this stock, Jim said to buy it here. Wells Fargo should be trading much higher, but a broader market sell-off sent shares tumbling in recent weeks. There's a lot to like about this stock, though. During quarterly earnings, for example, management highlighted its expansion into capital markets in an effort to further diversify Wells Fargo's revenue streams. The bank received a B rating from Jim. Management said it would not be buying back stock as aggressively. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. People walk along Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange on May 3, 2023. Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images