What follows is “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s “Game Plan” for the week of Monday, Sept. 24.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24
To start, Cramer will look for homebuilder Lennarto report its quarterly earnings results before the opening bell.
“Here’s a once dominant regional homebuilder that went national at a very rough time and managed to survive the crisis through shrewd hard-nosed management and has since been perhaps the most aggressive player, taking advantage of the chaos all over the country,” Cramer said. “Lennar called the bottom, will they tell us that things will get even better next year?”
(Related: Cramer’s Plays on a Potential Housing Rebound)
Some investors might be concerned Lennar’s stock has made a huge run higher, but Cramer noted it traded at around $68 a share seven years ago, whereas it trades at around the $37 level today. To Cramer, that’s an indication that the homebuilder stocks could continue to push higher, especially considering the strong earnings results KB Home posted Friday.
(Read More: KB Home Profit Shows Housing Recovery on Track)
After Monday’s closing bell, Cramer plans to monitor earnings results from payroll processor Paychex.
“Given how Paychex works with so many small businesses, there are few companies that can take the pulse of job creators better than this one does,” Cramer said. “The company’s been muted the whole way about the job growth that it sees. So with only two more nonfarm payroll numbers coming up before the election, we have to listen closely to anything that might sound like something good [is] at last happening in the hiring world.”
Paychex has done a great job of making money for its shareholders lately, Cramer said, noting its stock has rallied by around 15 percent year-to-date. It also boasts a juicy dividend yield of nearly 4 percent, he added.
(See: Cramer's Top Dividend Stocks 2012)
Red Hat is also scheduled to deliver earnings after Monday’s close. To Cramer, Red Hat is one of the best plays on cloud computing. Cramer thinks the technology company will report decent results, including an accelerated number of orders, because its services allow companies to reduce their information technology bills.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 25
Carnival will report earnings before Tuesday’s open.
“Not that long ago, a Carnival cruise line ship had a horrendous accident off the coast of Italy. At the time — while I didn’t want to seem callous — I said that you had to take advantage of the decline the crash engendered to buy the stock because Micky Arison, the Chairman and CEO, would find a way to come back from this tragedy,” Cramer said. “Sure enough, the stock [has] been on a nice move upward ever since and I believe that the accident will barely come up on the call.”
After Tuesday’s close, Cramer looks forward to earnings results from Jabil Circuit.
“This is a company — a contract manufacturer for all kinds of tech and health care products, among others — that hasn’t done much of late and that’s highly unusual, as it’s one of the best multi-year performers out there,” Cramer said, adding that he thinks the technology company will likely report a better-than-expected quarter.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26
Crude oil inventories will be released Wednesday. To Cramer, it will be the “most important macro number of the week.” Cramer thinks the price of oil will go higher in the long-term, but the inventories will indicate what direction it could go in the near-term.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 27
Discover Financial Services will announce its earnings results before Thursday’s opening bell. Cramer hopes to learn more about how this financial services provider has partnered with eBay’s PayPal unit.
“There are so many new rival credit card systems being pushed by the venture capitalists and they all sound great, but the one that’s storming the retail barricades and taking it to Visa and MasterCard is eBay,” Cramer said. “I continue to believe that PayPal alone is worth all of eBay’s stock price, and the rest, that gigantic online merchant and fulfillment center, comes for free.”
Elsewhere in the market, McCormick is scheduled to report earnings Thursday. To Cramer, McCormick is not only a spice company – it is “the” spice company. He argued that what Hershey is to chocolate, McCormick is to spices, making it “best of breed.” So while its stock has pushed sharply higher lately, Cramer noted that investors are buying into what he considers a top quality company.
After the market’s close, Nike will deliver earnings. The sporting goods and athletic apparel maker recently announced a sizable stock buyback program, which Cramer considers a bullish sign.
“Unless management thinks it’s going to have a huge shortfall and then get to buy the stock cheaply, I would take the buyback as a sign of confidence,” Cramer said.
Meanwhile, Research In Motion will also report earnings after Thursday’s close. Cramer said there may be more speculation that the technology company might put itself up for sale, even though he doubts that will happen. Either way, the BlackBerry maker continues to lose market share to rival Apple, which makes the popular iPhone device.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 28
Before trading gets going Friday, Walgreen will report earnings. The pharmacy retailer’s stock had tanked after a squabbled with pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts, as well as a $6.7 billion merger with Boots, an European pharmacy retailer, but it has since been able to post some gains. In Cramer’s opinion, Walgreen doesn’t have much more room to run, but it all depends on what company executives say during the earnings conference call. Either way, he suggests taking profits ahead of the call.
When this story was published, Cramer’s charitable trust owned Apple.
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