Cramer tells analyst his Sunday night Apple downgrade was 'showboat' call

• Mizuho's Abhey Lamba issued his downgrade of Apple in a note to clients Sunday evening.
• "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer questioned the timing of the report and whether it was done just to garner attention.
• Lamba's note marked the second straight Sunday in which an analyst downgraded Apple.

Jim Cramer gave a Mizuho analyst a hard time on CNBC's "Halftime Report" for issuing his downgrade of Apple on a Sunday evening.

"Why do you [do it] during the weekend? I just want to know because it was the Tonys last night and this is a bit of, I think, a little showboat," the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" said Monday. "You fired for maximum effect."

Abhey Lamba, managing director, Americas research at Mizuho, downgraded Apple to neutral from buy, based on the view that the stock's price already accounts for much of investor enthusiasm, and that further gains are limited. Lamba also lowered his price target to $150 from $160.

Jim Cramer speaks with Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook on the 10th Anniversary of Mad Money.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

"It's not put together in half an hour. It's not put together in one day. It takes multiple weeks to do the work, and when the work was finished, when we got all the data points in there, we ... pulled the trigger," Lamba said on the "Halftime Report," in response to Cramer's remarks.

Apple was down more than 3 percent to below $145 a share midday Monday, after falling 3.9 percent Friday as major tech shares dropped on worries the stocks had run too high, too quickly.

Lamba is the second analyst in a row to issue a negative report on Apple to start the workweek. The Sunday before, Pacific Crest downgraded the tech giant to sector weight from overweight.