Mad Money

Cramer pinpoints the single best thing about PepsiCo's earnings beat: The short sellers

Key Points
  • CNBC's Jim Cramer applauds how PepsiCo's second-quarter earnings beat managed to stifle the short positions building up in the company's stock.
  • The "Mad Money" host is also somewhat thankful that the expectations for PepsiCo's earnings were so negative.
Short sellers the single best thing about PepsiCo's earnings beat
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Short sellers the single best thing about PepsiCo's earnings beat

Besides the fact that PepsiCo's earnings beat on Tuesday set the stage for a strong earnings season, Jim Cramer's favorite thing about its report was what it showed the short-sellers.

"PepsiCo’s stock had attracted a raft of short sellers going into the quarter, people betting that they could cash in on an instant decline," the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" said Tuesday.

"Instead, they heard the two words short sellers fear most: 'sequential improvement,' as in each month was better than the previous one during the quarter and the improvement’s continued into this new quarter, which is benefiting from a heat wave," he continued.

As a result of the short sellers' missed bets and the strength of its quarterly results, shares of PepsiCo surged 4.76 percent in Tuesday's trading session.

In the fiscal second quarter, the packaged goods giant delivered 2.6 percent organic growth versus expectations of 2.2 percent, with 5 percent core growth coming from its Frito-Lay brands.

Cramer applauded PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi for her "remarkable work" in transforming her company into one focused on better-for-you products, sustainability and environmental awareness and progress.

"Nooyi has built a company to last, attracting the best and brightest to her business," he said. "She’s true to her word, although there’s one community that’s been left behind: the analyst community, part of which is now in tatters after they called for a shortfall and instead got these blockbuster, better-than-expected numbers."

And where PepsiCo analysts were once joking in their notes about "not feeling too bubly" about the company's second quarter — referencing bubly, PepsiCo's new sparkling water brand — Cramer suggested a new quip for the naysayers.

"I’d like to see some of these jocular analysts write tomorrow, ... 'I bet you can’t beat just one,' as in I think PepsiCo now beats quarter after quarter after quarter for the rest of the year," he said in a spin on the well-known Lays advertisement.

All in all, Cramer was somewhat thankful that the expectations for PepsiCo's latest earnings report were muted.

"When you go into a quarter with great expectations, they can produce a Dickensian tale of woe," the "Mad Money" host said. "But with lousy expectations, a well-run company like PepsiCo can deliver a good quarter that produces gigantic gains, the biggest in seven years."

WATCH: Cramer digs into PepsiCo's Q2 earnings beat

Cramer pinpoints the single best thing about PepsiCo's earnings beat: The short sellers
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Cramer pinpoints the single best thing about PepsiCo's earnings beat: The short sellers

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of PepsiCo.

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