Tuesday, 10/07/08
Posted 10/08/08,  08:52 am ET

(Scroll down to see Jim's comments below)

 
 
Today's date:  Tuesday, 10/07/08

  Dow Jones:   9,447  - 508
  NASDAQ:   1,754  - 108
  S&P 500:      996   - 60
 
 
 
 
 
First Segment
 
See complete recommendation comments below...
 
Opening Segment 2
Title:
'Sweet Assets'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s):

Hershey Co. (HSY)

See HSY's official investor relations' site here.
See the Yahoo! Finance profile for HSY here.


See Opening Segment 2, below...

 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Lightning Round picks here...


Jim:    
Yesterday, I told you that, if you can't eat it... can't drink it... can't smoke it... can't take it when you're sick... or wash with it... then you can own it. These are the stocks that I'd be looking to buy in this, the most horrible market that I've ever seen...

Pretty much everything else, unless it's got a fat, zobtic dividend, or a huge a huge cash hoard almost equal to its stock price, just ain't working, okay...

That doesn't mean... people say, Cramer says sell everything... If I say, "sell everything," then why am I hawking... Hershey Co. (HSY)?...

That's right. Maybe it's time we revisit a company that was once great, and could be great again...

C'mon... a trusted brand name?... Now that cocoa and sugar prices have come back down... and that stock is Hershey Co. (HSY)...

Now, between 2001 and 2005, this company was en fuego...

It streamlined its distribution centers from 22 to 5, closed 4 manufacturing plants, had manageable commodity costs and, most importantly, from 2002-2005, HSY grew its earnings at an outstanding 14% compound annual growth rate.

But then this company fell from grace...

These days of double-digit growth are gone now. HSY is expected to stumble along, growing earnings just by 4-6%. Its operating margins peaked in 2006, at 20.3%... and they're expected to decline under 15% this year. That's not good. No one wants to see that level of decline.

The company cut back on ad spending and its sales grew at a lowly 2.6%... I mean, that really is a little pathetic in 2006. I mean, I think I ate more chocolate that year... maybe you did... And it was even a more meager, 0.1% last year, down from 4% in 2002. Now, we know not everybody stopped eating chocolate! It ain't like that. It isn't like, when gasoline goes to $4.50, we don't use it... I mean, this stuff is amazing...

The stock - if not the candy though - did become inedible...

Now I believe HSY could be poised for a comeback...

Commodity costs have come down, especially for HSY's most important two inputs (i.e., raw costs to make its products)... sugar, which makes up 19% of HSY's input costs, and cocoa, which makes up 15% of HSY's input costs. Remember, this is pretty simple...

Sugar futures are down 13% from their peak in February and, more importantly, the price of cocoa has just collapsed... Cocoa's down 21% since June. I wish HSY hadn't hedged against its sugar and cocoa costs. Hedges last from 3-24 months... but these declines in the cost of sugar and cocoa together are enough to insure that I believe that HSY's earnings will exceed the Street's estimates for the foreseeable future. And, if they can maintain these price points... wow.

.  .  .  .  .

The Bottom Line!:     I think Hershey Co. (HSY) - which is a trusted brand name... the kind of stock I'm recommending here in this awful environment... one that you can own for your 401k, for your IRA, that you can put away for your kids... Didn't he say to sell everything?! No... I think the bottom line is that HSY's years of stock purgatory are over, because this one, at least, is coming back. Now, just so you know, read my lips... I am recommending a stock... read my lips... do not sell everything. Read my lips... I like HSY.

 

   
 

Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)

HSY

37.51

na

Hershey Co. (HSY)


 

       
   

 

 



See all of tonight's stocks' latest quotes on Yahoo! Finance



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Second Segment
 
See complete recommendation comments below...
Opening Segment 2
Title:
'CEO Interview'
'Force of Nature?'


Marc Benioff, CEO

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s):

Salesforce.com (CRM)

See CRM's official investor relations' site here.
See the Yahoo! Finance profile for CRM here.


 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Lightning Round picks here...


Jim:      We know that tech, as a sector, is far from the bottom. Estimates are too high, inventories are too swollen, and the economy is just heading into recession right now. It needs to be heading out of one for most tech stocks to start going higher again...

So what about Salesforce.com (CRM)?...

We're supposed to love fast-growing companies here on Mad Money, and this one's growing at a 40% clip... That's about the fastest growing tech company I know.

Okay, the stock's expensive. That didn't used to matter... It's got a 57x price-to-earnings multiple for next year. Even after being cut exactly in half, the stock's still priced for perfection I feel...

The company is the leader though in software as a service... a great and growing business that lets companies save on IT - information technology - spending, by using its software, rather than hardware. It's a great business model.

I've been saying you should sit this one out, ever since January, when the stock was at $54, 18 points higher than where it is now... but it did go up higher after I said to sit it out...

Now, open hand... I am a huge admirer of this company and management...

Now, yesterday, SAP AG (SAP) said that its business had gotten soft in software, so I've got to wonder, are all software companies created equal?...

CRM's CEO, Marc Benioff, is fabulous and, last quarter, CRM grew revenues at 49%. It raised its full-year guidance, although some people are unhappy, because of some deferred quarter-over-quarter revenue growth that was not what was expected...

I told you the stock's got a little perfection thing going... You can't say that anymore. You can't say it's still perfect... not after a couple of firms downgraded it today... and the stock took another 11% hit...

Hey, CRM just signed its largest platform deal ever with Dell... It ended the last quarter with a huge pile of cash, which you'll remember the best tech players have when they bottomed in 2003.

CRM has $823 million in cash... $6.55 (a share) in cash... a growth stock! That's up 60% year-over-year, but maybe things are about to get worse for CRM... We've got to find out...

Ever since it acquired Instranet on August 20th, the stock's been getting clobbered by people worried about the dilution from the deal... My impulse is to say, let's just watch it.

But, you know what? There's one guy who knows a lot more about Salesforce.com (CRM)... than I do... but it is a great pleasure to have one of my absolute favorite CEOs in the country, Marc Benioff, on the show... and it is so good to have you...

Marc, the stock and the company are diverging, aren't they, right here?...

.  .  .  .  .

Jim's comments AFTER the interview:     Guys look... Some companies do well in tough times. This is one of them. Why aren't I saying buy the stock? Because I don't like the market. When the market gets better, you've got to remember that his company is a different model. It's a model that saves companies money. It's radically different from all the others, it's obviously the best product... I just can't recommend the stock because it's too high but, when this one comes down, I've got to tell you something... buy, buy, buy!... because of him, because of his product, because of the company...

   
 

Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)

CRM

35.94

na

Salesforce.com (CRM)

 

       

 

 

Go to the LIGHTNING ROUND from tonight's show here >>

See current quotes on Yahoo! Finance from tonight's show stocks here >>

Symbol keys:

A Charitable Trust stock. - An asterisk next to a stock symbol indicates that Jim mentioned it is a stock that he manages within
his charitable trust portfolio.  You can see the complete portfolio
of stocks here >>

Thumbs up - indicates he would buy the stock or, at the very least, not sell the stock.  We do our best to interpret Jim's opinion on stocks, as we think it is indicated by his comments during the show.  Please read his comments to decide for yourself.

Thumbs down - indicates he has said not to buy or to sell the stock, based on his comments  We do our best to interpret Jim's opinion on stocks, as we think it is indicated by his comments during the show.  Please read his comments to decide for yourself.

Back up the truck - indicated by Jim, when he says the stock is so good, that he would do a 'mon-back' on the stock... In other words, this is the sound someone would say to a truck driver, "Come on back... " as he is "backing up the truck" to load up on his cargo.  Translation for buying stocks:  This recommendation by Jim indicates that, after you do your own homework on the stock, you should feel comfortable loading up on it, as it is in a good position to be bought at this point.

Stumped. - Of the 2,000+ stocks that Jim Cramer has in his head, for which he has an informed opinion, he sometimes comes across a caller with a stock he does not know well enough to opine on...  He then indicates he is stumped and will have to come back to it, after he does some homework of his own on the stock.  This usually occurs during the Lightning Round, when Jim does not know in advance who is calling, or what their stock question is about.
 

 
Definitions of key phrases used by Jim, known as "Cramerisms":

Definition:   'Pull the trigger' is Jim's phrase for making the decision at that point to trade - either to 'buy' or to 'sell' (although he usually uses the phrase for buying), as if to say you should feel comfortable enough to make the final decision without looking back...

Definition:   'Ring the Register' is Jim's phrase for selling a stock, and making it a final sale, that you should not look back on.  Put it behind you.

Definition:  'Let It Come In' indicates how you may wait for it to pull back, or have the stock price come down briefly, as your chance (after letting it come in) to buy the rest of your position (i.e., total number of shares you own in that stock).

Definition:  'backing it up' or 'doing a 'mon-back' is Jim's phrase for the metaphor of backing up a truck to load up on a stock by buying it.  'Mon-back is short for the imaginary worker saying, 'Come on back...' as the truck is backing up to receive its load... Notice that we use the little truck icon to indicate where Jim has mentioned this.  Translation for buying stocks:  This recommendation by Jim indicates that, after you do your own homework on the stock, you should feel comfortable loading up on it, as it is in a good position to be bought at this point.
  See more "Cramerisms" & other financial phrases here >>
   
Helpful Websites:
  See the stocks currently known to be in Jim Cramer's
Charitable Trust at:

jim-cramer-charitable-trust-stocks.com

 
See the stocks currently known to be in Warren Buffett's portfolio
of stocks at:

warren-buffett-portfolio.com

 
  Stock Homework 101:   This is an excellent upcoming site that provides resources and links to help you do that homework that Jim Cramer recommends after hearing his suggestions...

StockHomework101.com

This site is coming soon.   Thank you.

 
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Fast Money Recap - Trades for next day...

Compare these picks to Jim's comments for the same stocks.

 

 

   
   
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