Wall Street turned on four of its longtime favorite stocks following earnings on Thursday. Suddenly, companies that have been remarkably consistent hit speed bumps and created what Jim Cramer described as a "bizarre earnings season."
"What we really have in each case is a set of expectations created by stocks that have been moving up consistently —expectations that were too much for each of these companies' managements to muster," the "Mad Money" host said.
Google-owner Alphabet, Visa, Microsoft and Starbucks all reported earnings Thursday, and in each case the market pronounced the quarters subpar and sent the stocks tumbling after hours.
The only problematic miss, in Cramer's perspective, came from Alphabet, which simply failed to deliver on both the top and bottom line. After a series of better-than-expected earnings and sales that fueled the stock higher, its 17 percent top-line growth just wasn't enough.
"The darned thing was priced for perfection, and we didn't get it. So, it is getting clobbered," Cramer said.
Starbucks shares tumbled 4 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday following earnings that missed Wall Street expectations.
"Without a doubt, every business segment contributed to our performance. It was a record quarter for us," Starbucks President Kevin Johnson told Cramer "And I think in every business there is just a great story underlying those numbers."
While Starbucks reported in-line earnings on slightly weaker than expected revenue, its 6 percent same-store sales growth was slower than anticipated.
"We posted 6 percent increase in comps globally, but if you go region by region, there is a story under each of those regions," Johnson said.
Read More Starbucks president: 'It was a record quarter'
Cramer believes that the world is getting better, thanks to a rebound in China.
Apparently, Las Vegas Sands did not get the memo, when it told a tale of woe in its conference call about Macau.
"What this market really needs right now is for Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, who also has a ton of Macau exposure, to say that Las Vegas Sands doesn't know what it is talking about," Cramer said.
Another company that reported earnings on Thursday and had trouble hitting revenue estimates was Snap-On Incorporated.
Snap-On is the maker of high-quality tools and diagnostic equipment for auto repair shops, and serves clients in aerospace, agriculture, construction, mining and power generation.
When Snap-On reported in the beginning of February, it posted a significant top-line miss, although it still delivered a bottom-line beat.
To learn more, Cramer spoke with Snap-On CEO Nick Pinchuk, who discussed the company's expansion into more military, oil and gas products.
"We know that we are going to expand in those segments, rolling the Snap-On brand out of the garage because customers there really want our product and we haven't paid attention to it in the past. We are rolling out, and it is going to work for us," Pinchuk said.
Lam Research also reported what seemed to be a strong quarter, and after the stock initially surged it ultimately sank by market close.
Cramer speculated that the decline was simply due profit taking after the stock ran up dramatically going into the quarter.
However, before advising investors to jump back in on the pullback, he spoke with Lam Research's CEO Martin Anstice to learn more.
"I think the headline for the semiconductor industry broadly is innovation is never more valuable, never more important. Some part of that is a challenge for innovation to overcome technical challenges, and some of it is economic," Anstice said.
In the Lightning Round, Cramer gave his take on a few caller favorite stocks:
RR Donnelley and Sons: "Yes, it yields 6 percent. The company is breaking up. We have spoken many times to Tom Quinlan [CEO], we like the different parts he is giving you, so we like that yield. It's a good one."
American Water Works: "We've got to be careful of American Water Works. I was working on the charts this weekend, this stock has moved up, and up, and up because of a belief that the utilties are un-saleable and they are coming up for sale. I would ring the register on half and let the rest run."