Sometimes, CNBC’s Jim Cramer feels like Bill Murray’s character in the film “Groundhog Day” when he talks about the stock of consulting giant Accenture.
Like Murray’s character, the “Mad Money” host feels like he’s re-living the same day over and over again when he pounds the table on Accenture’s stock, which almost always pulls back after the company reports its quarterly earnings.
“My view is simple: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Cramer said. “Buying Accenture into even small bouts of weakness has been a hugely winning strategy, and I think it’s got more room to run.”
Cramer said the stock almost routinely gets ignored or pushed down in the wake of “good, but not amazing” quarters despite strong fundamentals and promising growth drivers. He highlighted its long-term trajectory, much of which has been a rally.
“When a company’s track record is this good, you need to take advantage of the most modest pullbacks to do some buying, and they seem to keep happening after every quarter,” Cramer said. “That’s why I’d pick up some Accenture stock right here, and then you’ve got to hope it keeps pulling back in order to buy even more at a lower level.”
Normally, markets are rattled after events as shocking and deadly as Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, the largest in U.S. history, take place.
But Cramer himself was rattled when stocks, along with the three major indexes, hit all-time highs Monday morning as if the world was as stable as ever.
“The stocks rallying the hardest say that things are going great, so we have to note how true believers are frantically putting money to work right into the face of domestic and global uncertainty,” Cramer said.
As much as investors may consider President Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve to be stock-moving entities, Cramer found that the third quarter’s top stocks didn’t have much to do with either.
“The truth is, it’s much easier for the media to focus on Trump and the Fed than it is to focus on individual stocks,” the “Mad Money” host said. “I think that’s why it’s so much harder to make money in the market if you only pay attention to the daily noise. It’s confusing, and worse, it’s not really relevant to identifying high quality stocks.”
Cramer said that realistically, Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s prudence has done more to not hurt stocks than to move them, and Trump’s market-boosting initiatives haven’t materialized yet.
So Cramer looked back at the top 10 winners of the third quarter to see what really drove their gains.
In the wake of a deal between Hain Celestial and activist firm Engaged Capital, Hain Celestial Chairman, President and CEO Irwin Simon seemed pleased at the outcome.
“We got six new board members, six new board members with a lot of industry experience … which is going to be very, very helpful to the company, very, very helpful for me from an international standpoint,” Simon told CNBC on Monday in an exclusive interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer. “I look at it as six new, independent board members for Hain Celestial’s shareholders.”
Simon highlighted some of the new board members’ affiliations with Nutrisystem, Conagra Brands and Wal-Mart.
Having previously dealt with activist investor Carl Icahn, Simon said he was open to Engaged Capital’s recommendations when the firm disclosed its 9.9 percent stake in Hain in June.
“They stepped up. They were very, very smart. They bought the stock in the $30s,” Simon told Cramer. “Hey, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They’ve brought some great ideas.”
Finally, as the stock market surges into October, Cramer noticed a dozen unusual stock groups that have been gaining momentum.
“Given that we are going into earnings season, it’s rather strange, and, I should add, actually incredibly healthy to see so many stocks from so many sectors running into their quarters,” he said. “Normally I’d be worried by this kind of action, but if they get hit after they report, I think you can confidently buy them into weakness considering the broad-based nature of this rally.”
From the bank stocks to insurance, e-commerce and auto parts plays that got a boost from post-hurricane rebuilding in the South, sectors that had under-performed for much of 2017 started to come back, full steam ahead, Cramer said.
“Now, the fact is, I could’ve highlighted another half-dozen hot groups: defense, ag, financial tech, e-commerce. But they’ve been strong all year,” the “Mad Money” host said. “My conclusion: I wouldn’t get in the way of these cohorts, I’d just get in them. In my opinion, with the exception of the oils, they’re going to keep climbing through the end of the year.”
In Cramer’s lightning round, he flew through his take on some callers’ favorite stocks:
Kohl’s Corporation: “It’s a hold. I think that that yield is good. I think it’s got a really good business model. I don’t want you to sell it, but I do want you to buy it if it goes back under $40 and get some more.”
Moelis & Company: “I like [CEO] Ken Moelis. I think he’s really, really smart. I think they’ve got a good business model and I expect a lot of mergers and acquisitions even though it’s pretty high.”
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Source: Investment Cnbc
Cramer Remix: You won’t regret buying this stock on weakness