Tim Sloan resigned, following the market closed, as chief of the scandal-plagued Wells Fargo even though he delivered a quarter that exceeded expectations, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Thursday.
After a 31-year career with the bank, Sloan said he felt like he had become a distraction at the company because of the "endless harangues from Washington [D.C.] about his leadership," the "Mad Money" host said.
The stock closed up 0.66 percent on the session, and jumped as much as 3.3 percent after the announcement. Sloan became CEO in 2016.
"I wouldn't chase this stock now though. It is a bank. It has gone up after he resigned," Cramer said. "But in the end it's a bank, and bank stocks are awful, no matter who runs them. Sorry."
Mad money picks
Investors should think about buying some individual stocks as about a trillion dollars worth of companies are due to go public, Cramer said.
Index funds, as promoted by the late John Bogle, typically beat most individual money managers in the long run, but Cramer said some stocks are popping as the major averages make little noise.
The top U.S. indexes all rose about 0.30 percent on the session.
"Starting with the Lyft IPO, I think individual stock picking is going to start making a bit of a comeback. I sense the excitement, the possibilities, but don't leave it to just the IPOs," the "Mad Money" host said. "There's something good going on here in all sorts of high-quality companies. You just need to be curious, stop paying attention to politics, and pay attention to what you like and what you know, and I think you can make some mad money."
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Expect the best
The low expectations surrounding the new Goldman Sachs-linked credit card that Apple plans to roll out is good news for both stocks, Cramer said.
Apple's new TV platform, which will be a key component of the tech giant's fledgling services businesses, has made the most noise, but the credit card will be the winner even though it didn't impress the technology and financial technology analysts, he said.
No expectations are the best kind of expectations, Cramer added.
"Now we just need to wait for the analysts to plug this card into their models, although admittedly that could take a while," the host said. "But I bet, even though Goldman's a bank stock, I don't think its gonna go lower much lower, it can go higher. And Apple: I say own it, don't trade it."
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A better snack
Execution matters when you're picking individual stocks, Cramer said.
Mondelez, which makes Chips Ahoy! and a host of other snack foods, is a well-run company that can serve nice gains, he said. Kraft Heinz, which holds food brands such as Planters and Oscar Mayer, on the other hand is not worth owning, he added.
Finesse separates the two, he said.
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Preparing for new proxy voting rules
Broadridge Financial Solutions offers technology-based investor communications and other services for banks, brokers, and mutual funds.
Executive Chairman Richard Daly told Cramer there are changes coming to proxy voting, where shareholders vote on major decisions facing a company, and how voters can access information.
"What you need to is if you're a mutual fund investor and you're receiving paper today, two years from Jan. 1 of this year—Jan. 1, 2021—you will no longer get this paper, unless you take action," he said.
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Am I diversified?
Cramer takes a look at callers' top five holdings and lets them know if he thinks their portfolio is diversified enough.
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Cramer's lightning round: Don't buy this low-reward, high-risk stock
In Cramer's lightning round, he ran through his reactions to callers' stock questions:
Pure Storage Inc.: You know what, the last quarter was actually good, but it's a very high-risk stock, O.K. I mean, I say high risk, I mean it is low reward and high risk. So I am going to say" don't buy.
Eli Lilly and Co.: "You know what, Eli Lilly could do no wrong. [CEO] David Ricks' doing a terific job. I know it's run up 40-straight points, but I don't think it's even finished."
Nucor Corp.: "Look, it's fine. John Ferriola, the CEO, did a very good job on the Squawk [Box] today. If you believe in steel stocks, you wanna own a steel stock, then you buy Nucor. Otherwise, you don't need it and you don't have to.
Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Apple and Goldman Sachs.
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