Don’t dump your best stocks out of boredom, Cramer said Tuesday. While he understands the craving for something new, an exciting name to keep your portfolio interesting, “It’s too dangerous and too futile to be allowed to rule your investment style.”
Consider the prevailing attitude toward Ford Motor these days. Cramer said that caller after caller is asking about Toyota , assuming the company's recent problems are only temporary. They’re bored with Ford, even after today’s stellar sales numbers, and now want to buy TM on the dip.
But who says Toyota’s setback is temporary? Maybe the sudden acceleration problems will damage the automaker’s reputation for years. If that’s the case, then this could be a damaged company, Cramer said, and not a damaged stock.
That’s why Cramer is sticking with Ford. And he likes letter F, as well as CEO Alan Mulally, who’s responsible for this remarkable turn, more than Honda Motor and Daimler, both of which have been eyed by traders of late because of the Toyota fiasco. He endorsed Ford’s common stock, but he’s an even bigger fan of the preferred shares.
Ford’s not alone either. The tech sector has its share of investors looking for a different play than Apple . Even Dell was upgraded, though Cramer can’t seem to understand how someone could compare Steve Jobs’ performance over the last decade to the PC maker’s namesake. Cramer called the switch to DELL from AAPL “crazy.”
No doubt there are times when new stocks are needed. Even Cramer during his hedge-fund days jumped from Gap to Walmart to Target at various points when the fundamentals called for it. But these moves should be made on a case-by-case basis, and right now selling Ford and Apple would be a mistake.
“We want progress, we want new products, we want new plants, we want improved margins, and we want better balance sheets,” Cramer said. “But we don’t want a new and different stock that might not have those in store for us. We want more of the same” from Ford and Apple.
Cramer's charitable trust owns Apple.
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