Cramer: Don't bail on Home Depot just because of sluggish spring sales
- Cramer says don't rush to sell Home Depot stock because of its disappointing quarterly sales.
- The "Mad Money" host suspects that other top home improvement retailers may have similar numbers when they report quarterly earnings.
CNBC's Jim Cramer urged investors on Tuesday to reconsider selling their Home Depot stock in response to the company's disappointing quarterly sales.
Home Depot shares were about 2 percent lower Tuesday after the retailer reported quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street's expectations, dragged down by what the company called a "slow start to the spring selling season."
The "Mad Money" host suspected that other top home improvement retailers may have similar numbers when they report quarterly earnings.
"By the time next week when Lowe's reports, we're all going to say to ourselves, 'Shoot, that Home Depot was such an opportunity,'" Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Home Depot just had the "misfortune" of reporting its quarterly earnings first, Cramer added.
Home Depot's rival Lowe's will report its first-quarter earnings numbers on May 23. Lowe's stock was slightly lower on Tuesday.
Despite the revenue miss, Home Depot did earn $2.08 per share for the first quarter, 3 cents above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.
Cramer, who has said he preferred Home Depot over Lowe's because of what he called generally better earnings results, same-store sales and growth, said investors should believe Home Depot when it says the weather was bad.
"I think this company deserves the benefit of the doubt when they say May is a resumption," Cramer said. "Everyone likes to go to Home Depot for the planting season. And the weather wasn't there."
"There's a stickiness to Home Depot. People come back," he added. "I just don't want people to get hurt" by bailing on the stock.