By Stockpickr Staff
Posted on Nov. 2, 2009
Regardless of why a stock is in the news, it never hurts to hear what a professional investor has to say about it. The key is to gather as much information as you can in order to make the most informed investment decisions you can. As Jim Cramer often reminds, investors must do their homework.
So what has Cramer had to say lately about today's headline-makers? At Stockpickr, we've combed through his recent RealMoney blog posts, "Mad Money" TV show recaps and "Stop Trading!" segments to find out what he thinks about some of today's newsworthy stocks.
CIT (CIT): On Sunday, CIT filed for bankruptcy protection following a failed debt-exchange offer to bondholders.
In an Oct. 26 post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer said that the "now dangerous" situation in Synovus (SNV) is a "reminder of the precarious nature of the regional banks" and that Synovus "is beginning to look like CIT." "We can handle one CIT," he said. "We can't handle another."
Humana (HUM): Humana's beat analyst estimates in its third quarter by a penny, with a profit of $1.78 a share. Revenue rose 8% to $7.72 billion but missed the $7.82 billion consensus target.
On Oct. 26 on "Stop Trading!", Cramer said he saw little risk in shorting stocks in the current market environment, even stocks such as Humana, WellPoint (WLP) and UnitedHealth (UNH). He said these stocks should be fine in the long term, but in the short term, they're likely to be shorted by people overreacting to talk of a public option.
Wal-Mart (WMT): Wal-Mart is cutting prices on 100 more toys for the holiday season, by 20% to 30%.
In his Oct. 26 "Stop Trading!" segment, Cramer said that Amazon (AMZN) has beat out Wal-Mart to become the "lowest-cost producer on the Web." Wal-Mart can't dominate the Internet, he said, because it doesn't "have fulfillment down like Amazon does." "If Wal-Mart can't be low-cost, why go there?" he asked.
Bank of America (BAC): According to a Saturday New York Post article, Bank of America is preparing to repay around $20 billion in TARP funds.
On Oct. 27 in a post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer wrote that the bears "are determined to blunt even the most aggressive mark-ups here, and I think they have enough ammo to take down tech and the banks." He said that the "weakest former leaders," such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo (WFC) and Goldman Sachs (GS), "seem to have no fight in them."
That evening on the "Lightning Round," Cramer said he thought Bank of America was a buy at current levels.
And in an Oct. 29 blog post, he wrote: "The heaviest short positions I know right now are in Bank of America and Wells Fargo, betting that these two will be ordered to do secondaries by the government and that they are so heavy anyway. "
Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft has made a deal with OpenX Technologies to increase its online advertising business.
In an Oct. 26 blog post, Cramer wrote that big names in tech such as Microsoft, Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and Amazon "are making moves that have us thinking about tech in a positive way and make us recognize the power of the Web renewed."
Later that day, Cramer wrote that it was "now a short-seller's paradise for the moment" and that in tech, Broadcom (BRCM) was "trumping everything including Microsoft, and that is part of the mistery here today."
(Editor's note: At the time of publication, Cramer owned Bank of America and Wells Fargo for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)
(Editor's note: At the time of publication, Cramer owned Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)
