Speculation Friday: Tread Carefully

Fridays on Mad Money, Cramer looks for bad stocks that may have turned the corner and become good again. This week, the speculative footwear company Skechers caught his eye.

Retail is bad, no doubt. But stocks like Nike , Crocs and Deckers have repeatedly shown that if any sector in retail can buck the trend, its footwear. Cramer doesn’t think SKX is the next Crocs – or even Deckers – but it doesn’t have to be because it has gotten so cheap.

The company just delivered good earnings after a bad miss the previous quarter. It beat by nine cents per share, same-store sales and domestic wholesale revenues were up and, perhaps most importantly, it showed 36% international growth. SKX isn’t a true rest-of-world play yet (international is still less than 20% of sales) but with the kind of growth it is showing, Cramer predicted it could get 25% or even 30% foreign exposure eventually.

Sketchers is trading less than its growth rate, a quality Cramer looks for in undervalued stocks. It probably deserves to trade at a discount until it contunes to beat its numbers, he said. The company lowered guidance, either acknowledging how bad the retail landscape is or because it wanted a lower hurdle to clear next quarter, but either way Cramer’s recommendation is rooted in the belief that it will continue to beat earnings.

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