Alphabet’s earnings sell-off is unwarranted. Here’s how Jim Cramer would approach the stock now
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Wednesday’s key moments. 1. Stocks were lower Wednesday as the market rotation out of large technology companies into small caps continued. Jim Cramer called out the decline in U.S. government bond yields, saying it points to signs that “the economy is weakening.” Meanwhile, sectors like utilities and health care are holding up. “This is not what you want to see at this very moment,” Jim said. Shares of Apple were lower despite a price target bump from JPMorgan ahead of next week’s earnings. We get Ford ‘s quarterly numbers after the bell Wednesday. 2. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell more than 3% Wednesday despite reporting a top and bottom line beat in its second quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday. The company’s search-engine business showed strong momentum while its cloud unit crossed the $10 billion quarterly revenue mark for the first time, accompanied by $1 billion in operating profit. But the stock was pressured by light YouTube ad revenue and higher capital expenditures spending. In the current artificial intelligence race, “it’s spend or die,” Jim said. Jim said investors who want a bigger position in Alphabet can buy Wednesday’s weakness, but he urged them to do so incrementally as the rotation plays out. “Maybe if you want to buy 100 shares, you buy 25” of them on Wednesday, Jim explained. 3. Struggling beauty company Estee Lauder caught an upgrade from RBC Capital Wednesday. The firm took the stock to a buy-equivalent rating from sector perform and kept its $131 price target. Analysts argued investor sentiment has bottomed and that the stock’s risk-to-reward profile skews favorable. At the same time, they acknowledge revenue growth will be slower than their original projections but believe the company can make up for it with margin expansion. Cramer described the luxury category as a tough trade. Our decision to trim some EL shares earlier this week was a move to de-risk our position. It’s important to “sell losers,” Jim said. “We want to have enough money to be able to buy winners.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AAPL, GOOGL, EL . See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
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