What follows is “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s “Game Plan” for the week of Monday, Sept. 24.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24
To start, Cramer will look for homebuilder Lennarto report its quarterly earnings results before the opening bell.
“Here’s a once dominant regional homebuilder that went national at a very rough time and managed to survive the crisis through shrewd hard-nosed management and has since been perhaps the most aggressive player, taking advantage of the chaos all over the country,” Cramer said. “Lennar called the bottom, will they tell us that things will get even better next year?”
(Related: Cramer’s Plays on a Potential Housing Rebound)
Some investors might be concerned Lennar’s stock has made a huge run higher, but Cramer noted it traded at around $68 a share seven years ago, whereas it trades at around the $37 level today. To Cramer, that’s an indication that the homebuilder stocks could continue to push higher, especially considering the strong earnings results KB Home posted Friday.
(Read More: KB Home Profit Shows Housing Recovery on Track)
After Monday’s closing bell, Cramer plans to monitor earnings results from payroll processor Paychex.
“Given how Paychex works with so many small businesses, there are few companies that can take the pulse of job creators better than this one does,” Cramer said. “The company’s been muted the whole way about the job growth that it sees. So with only two more nonfarm payroll numbers coming up before the election, we have to listen closely to anything that might sound like something good [is] at last happening in the hiring world.”
Paychex has done a great job of making money for its shareholders lately, Cramer said, noting its stock has rallied by around 15 percent year-to-date. It also boasts a juicy dividend yield of nearly 4 percent, he added.
(See: Cramer's Top Dividend Stocks 2012)
Red Hat is also scheduled to deliver earnings after Monday’s close. To Cramer, Red Hat is one of the best plays on cloud computing. Cramer thinks the technology company will report decent results, including an accelerated number of orders, because its services allow companies to reduce their information technology bills.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 25