Mad Money

Bullish catalyst: Cramer Wall of Shame CEO resigns

When the person in the corner office steps down, Cramer often looks for a stock to move.

The resignation of a rock star CEO is never good. Conversely, the resignation of a CEO that's stumbled isn't bad. However, the resignation of a CEO that's landed on Cramer's Wall of Shame can be downright bullish.

It's that last scenario that Cramer is looking for after Mark Frissora, the CEO of Hertz Global Holdings announced he was stepping down.




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"Boy that was a short stay. Less than a month ago, suggesting that if he were to step down, it would quickly create value for shareholders," Cramer reminded.

And just as he said on August 20th, Cramer again said, "I think this is a major opportunity."

"The auto rental industry has consolidated mightily over the years, but Hertz had been held back by the poor stewardship," Cramer said.

Now, tailwinds in the sector that could drive an advance are unencumbered, or at least less encumbered.

In the past, Cramer has outlined many bullish catalysts for Hertz. They again follow:

1. Pricing Power: "For the past couple of years, Hertz has been slower than its competitors to raise prices, but that was due to efforts involving the acquisition of Dollar Thrifty," Cramer said. "The company was under tremendous pressure from lawyers not to behave in any way that might suggest price fixing, or else the FTC might deny the merger. But now that issue is a thing of the past and Hertz is free to raise prices. It wouldn't take much to send their earnings through the roof, as a one percent increase in net pricing is worth 10 cents of earnings per share for the company."

2. Lower fleet costs: "In the past the company has struggled with fleet costs. It had too many vehicles and had to sell some of them sooner than people expected, leading to losses on some sales. But going forward, I think the numbers here will be much stronger now that the company has gotten this excess inventory out of its system."

3. Growth initiatives: Cramer said Hertz is pursuing a wide range of strategies that could boost both sales and earnings over time. "For example, the company's expanding into the off-airport insurance replacement rental car market, which has historically been dominated by Enterprise," Cramer said.

4. Break-Up story. "This company actually has two businesses, the rental car division, and an equipment rental division," Cramer explained. "Earlier this year Hertz announced plans to spin-off the equipment rental side of things, and I think this is a terrific way for the company to unlock a ton of value."

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Given the catalysts outlined above and the resignation of a CEO that may have held back growth, Cramer sees every reason to buy. "This stock is very cheap. I can easily see it playing catch-up with Avis."

Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

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