Latest news with #JimCramer
CNBC
3 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Home Depot eyes a deal — plus, casual dining shines and TikTok ban is delayed once more
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets: The S & P 500 was modestly lower Friday as investors mull over the latest news from the Israel-Iran conflict and consider the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy move. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that policymakers could lower interest rates as early as July. "That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not," Waller told CNBC Friday morning. Meanwhile, shares of chip stocks — including Club holdings Broadcom and Nvidia — were under pressure after a Wall Street Journal report indicated that the U.S. may revoke waivers that major semiconductor manufacturers rely on to use American technology in China. Elsewhere on the geopolitical front, top European diplomats were set to hold talks with Iranian officials in Geneva on Friday. It comes after the White House said that President Donald Trump will decide within the next two weeks whether the U.S. will directly join Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear sites. Home Deal-po?: QXO is not budging on its unsolicited $5 billion cash proposal to acquire GMS Inc. following Club name Home Depot's own bid for the building products distributor, Bloomberg News reported Friday afternoon . A QXO spokesperson told Bloomberg that $5 billion is the company's full offer. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Home Depot made a submission for GMS — raising the specter of a bidding war with QXO, the latest venture of billionaire businessman Brad Jacobs, a frequent guest on "Mad Money" over the years. Home Depot and QXO are competing for a bigger share of the construction supply market targeting professional contractors. Home Depot made a massive move in that area last year with its $18 billion acquisition of SRS Distribution. RBC analysts said Home Depot's bid for GMS might be perceived "slightly negatively," arguing it could further gross-margin dilution and delay share repurchases because the company's debt load remains above its targeted levels in the wake of the SRS deal. Casual shining: Darden Restaurants' fourth-quarter earnings report Friday showed that consumers are still opening their wallets for casual dining despite high levels of economic uncertainty — an encouraging sign for portfolio name Texas Roadhouse . Darden's leading chains — Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse — saw same-store sales rise 6.9% and 6.7% for the quarter, respectively. LongHorn Steakhouse, a direct competitor to the Texas Roadhouse chain, reported a 9.3% increase in total sales, which includes the performance of 16 new locations. "Consumers are figuring out that casual dining is a great value. And so, they're coming to casual dining more," said Darden CEO Rick Cardenas "We're seeing that across our brands and some of the industry. And so, without commenting on what's happened in other places, we think that's a big part of it. Consumers want to go out and spend their hard-earned money. And we think we're taking some wallet share from fast food and fast casual." Added Darden CFO Raj Vennam: "Pretty much every household income is growing in casual dining except for the ones below $50,000." For its full-year fiscal 2026, Darden expects total inflation in the range of 2.5% to 3% — including both labor and commodities like food — and same-store sales between 2% and 3.5%. Executives also doubled down on their commitment to affordability, saying they expect menu price hikes this fiscal year will "still likely be below total inflation." In general, what we heard from Darden, particularly on the overall consumer interest in casual dining, bodes well for Texas Roadhouse. It comes after analysts at UBS were upbeat on the Club name in a note earlier this month . We took some profits on Texas Roadhouse in May to lock in some big gains on our purchases in April during the tariff-driven market turmoil. While the stock is up less than 2% since that trim, it is our best-performing name this week, gaining around 6%. Clock keeps ticking: Trump signed an executive order Thursday granting another 90-day extension to the deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to divest the social media app's U.S. operations to an American entity. This is the third time Trump has extended the divestiture timeline for the short-form video platform, which is the chief competitor for Club name Meta . The deadline for ByteDance to complete the sale or face a ban in the U.S. is now set for Sept. 17. From an investment perspective, it would be a clear-cut positive for Meta's stock if its main rival in the U.S. went dark — forcing its users and advertisers to redirect their attention and dollars elsewhere. But, at this point, we're not holding our breath for it to happen, given Trump's stated desire to "save it." Meta's actions suggest that CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't betting on that happening, either. Instead, the Facebook and Instagram parent is putting its full financial force behind its AI investments to keep attracting and retaining users, and to further improve revenue and profits in its core advertising business. As we recently wrote , the AI-first tech giant keeps improving its AI tools for advertisers to create personalized ads with diverse text, backgrounds and images at a low cost. To stay ahead, Zuckerberg is on the hunt for top AI talent. CNBC reported Thursday that Meta is planning to hire AI investors Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman and partially buy out their venture capital fund, NFDG, which has invested in AI startups like Perplexity. Thursday's news comes after Meta recently invested $14.8 billion for a 49% stake in data-labeling company Scale AI. And, according to a Bloomberg News report Friday , Meta held discussions with Perplexity about a potential takeover before making its Scale AI offer. Ultimately, Meta's AI advancements and top experts in the field will allow it to better compete should TikTok remain as a competitor in the U.S. Meta stock is down about 1.6% Friday, to roughly $684 per share. It's up around 17% year to date. Up next: Starting after the close Friday and continuing into next week, Club name Eli Lilly will be presenting a slew of trial data at the American Diabetes Association's annual conference. Meanwhile, there are no Club holdings reporting earnings next week, though we'll be keeping an eye on results from the likes of FedEx and Micron . KB Home also has earnings in what will be a busy week of housing news, most notably the National Association of Realtors' existing home sales report on Monday morning. The biggest economic event of the week is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, which is due out Friday morning. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
CNBC
5 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Here's our guide on how to research stocks — and keep track of the ones you own
Here's our Club Mailbag email investingclubmailbag@ — so you send your questions directly to Jim Cramer and his team of analysts. We can't offer personal investing advice. We will only consider more general questions about the investment process or stocks in the portfolio or related industries. When Jim Cramer says that investors need to do the homework, what is the homework and where do you find it? -Maxine G. This is a crucial question for all investors to ask. You are correct that we preach "buy and homework," as opposed to the "buy and hold" mantra that many long-term investors tout. In this piece, we'll provide some tips to get you started with the homework, but it's important to remember that the homework never ends. Think of it like investigative journalism. You know there is a story there — in this case, a potential investment opportunity — but the magnitude of the story (or opportunity) isn't going to reveal itself until you've turned over as many stones as possible, and then a few more. Put another way, the homework is not a task that needs to be accomplished, but rather an ongoing journey that requires you to stay on your toes and constantly reconsider your investment thesis as new information is revealed. So, where do you find the homework? In an education article a few years ago , we discussed in great detail five types of information that investors can use to conduct the homework: 1) company filings 2) earnings calls 3) earnings estimates 4) geopolitical and macroeconomic news 5) industry-specific news. The information covered in that article is as relevant today as it was back in 2022, so we'd strongly encourage members to click the above link and go read it — whether it's a refresher for longtime members, or for the first time for those who have joined the Club more recently. Rather than rehash everything we covered in that piece, we wanted to use this space to highlight a few additional tools for members to consider because even our own homework process has evolved since we wrote it. One we've recently become fans of is the smartphone app called Quartr , which provides a convenient location to listen to earnings calls and Wall Street conferences, as well as the ability to read transcripts in real-time. It also provides analyst estimates across a few different metrics, which, as mentioned above, is an important part of the homework process. On the app, you're able to "follow" the companies in your portfolio and their close competitors, so all their activities are in one place. We also think it's important to consider podcasts as a source of investment information. While we won't highlight any one specific podcast — there are so many, and arguably more important than the podcast host itself is the guest — we view them as great sources of information because the interviews tend to be in a long, free-flowing format compared with what you might get elsewhere. This gives industry experts and/or executives the opportunity to delve deeper than they may be able to in other settings, which gives us a deeper understanding of the topic or company in question. A recent example where this helped us was when Club holding Meta Platforms announced a collaboration with the defense startup Anduril to develop headsets for the U.S. Army. The day of that announcement, we saw that Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey appeared on a podcast where he talked extensively about its work with Meta, providing background on their relationship and their ambitions. It helped shape our understanding, and we even quoted what Luckey said in our analysis article the next day . When evaluating an investment opportunity or keeping tabs on the stock once it's in your portfolio, you'll want to do more than read the news and analyze the qualitative aspects of the investment. It is also important to crunch some numbers to determine the company's financial health and valuation. We previously put together a five-part series on how to analyze an earnings report . In a separate story, we provided three ways to evaluate a company's debt level to judge the riskiness of buying its stock. We've done a few explainers on valuation in the past, too. For example, we have discussed the two primary ways that investors value stocks and the role that interest rates play in both. We have also explained how to calculate your own price-to-earnings (PE) and price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratios . And relatedly, we more recently did a deeper dive into the importance of a PEG ratio . For many investors, layering in some technical analysis is also part of their investment process — though, as we've noted in the past, our primary focus is on the business fundamentals. While we may take a position when the fundamentals are strong and the technicals are weak, we would never look to invest in a company in which the fundamentals are lacking, no matter the technical setup. In our view, technical analysis works until it doesn't, whereas fundamental analysis works until the fundamentals change — and if you're doing the homework, you'll know when that happens. We've provided some technical analysis in the past . If you go back and revisit that article, keep in mind that the technical setup is always changing. So, at this point, think more about the lessons and the tools used in that piece, rather than keying into any level that may have come up on those charts, which represent only a snapshot in time. Finally, if you're considering an investment because of its dividend yield, you'll want to be sure that the payout is actually sustainable. We explained how to do that in a previous story. In the end, the homework is a continuous process; Jim's recommendation is one hour of homework per week for each stock you own. While we've provided a number of useful tools and considerations here — and in the articles linked throughout this commentary — investors can also be rewarded for constantly thinking outside the box and looking for information in every possible place it may be available. This includes simply walking into a location of the company you're interested in and asking some questions, which has become known as the " scuttlebutt " method. The concept was popularized by Philip Fisher's book "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits," and it's all about seeing the operations in real life, speaking with store employees, managers, customers, suppliers, competitors, and so on. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Stifel Cuts J. M. Smucker's (SJM) PT, Maintains Hold
The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) is one of the 10 stocks that Jim Cramer and analysts are watching. On June 11, Stifel analyst Matthew Smith cut the price target on the stock from $120 to $106 and maintained a Hold rating. The firm noted that while the company posted a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter, its FY26 outlook suggests an 11% drop in EPS, which came in about 13% below the firm's forecast. The analyst lowered the FY26 EPS estimate by $ 1.43 to $8.95, mainly due to weaker performance in Coffee and Sweet Baked Goods. On the same day, several other firms, including Stifel, Barclays, and BofA, revised their price targets downward on J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) stock. A wholesaler distributing peanut butter, fruit spreads and specialty spreads to a retailer. On June 10, Cramer discussed The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) and said: 'But let's look at the other way. Let's talk about what old folks were interested in. There's a company called J.M. Smucker. It makes coffee jams and pet food, Uncrustables, Twinkies. It's covered by 15 different firms… It's real. We've all bought their stuff. Two years ago, right at the time that the GLP-1 drugs came of age and we went nuts for the weight loss shots, J.M. Smucker didn't seem to notice. They ran into the fire, they bought Hostess, that's right, Hostess, maker of Twinkies, for $5.6 billion in November of 2023. Today, they took a $980 million impairment charge for that transaction. I doubt that'll be the last one, as Twinkies and Ho Hos may not turn very well. Let's just say they're going nowhere. They also took a big hit from tariffs and higher coffee costs. Smucker's talking about a 20% boost in coffee prices. That's not going to help demand. In the wake of the news, the stock plunged more than 15%. Nearly every analyst who covers it had tough things to say about the business, all major firms.' The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) produces and sells a wide range of branded food and beverage products, including coffee, snacks, spreads, pet food, baked goods, and frozen items. While we acknowledge the potential of SJM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Redburn Atlantic Downgrades McDonald's (MCD) Stock, Cuts PT
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is one of the 10 stocks that Jim Cramer and analysts are watching. On June 10, Redburn Atlantic analyst Chris Luyckx double downgraded the stock from Buy to Sell and lowered the price target to $260 from $319. The firm believes weight-loss drugs like GLP-1 could hurt demand over time and sees this risk as not fully priced in. It warns that even a small hit to sales now could grow much larger, especially for chains that rely more on lower-income customers. Redburn expects lasting shifts in dining habits that go beyond individual users. A cook in a busy kitchen assembling cheeseburgers for orders. On June 9, Cramer discussed the recent analyst reports covering McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD). He commented: 'It amazes me that analysts refuse to learn from their mistakes that some stocks should not be taken off the buy list. Today, Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock of McDonald's, saying it's arguably too expensive and that it will probably not be insulated from some structural pressures on fast food. Now, with the stock at 25 times earnings, consensus estimate's too high. Morgan Stanley moved [it] to Equal Weight or Hold. [The] stock dropped $2 and 58 cents or 0.84% on that. McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) operates and franchises restaurants under its brand, and it provides a range of food and beverages such as burgers, chicken items, fries, desserts, and breakfast options. The company runs its business through different franchise models. While we acknowledge the potential of MCD as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Citi Cuts ConocoPhillips' (NYSE:COP) PT but Maintains Buy
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is one of the 10 stocks that Jim Cramer and analysts are watching. Citi cut its price target on the stock from $140 to $115 but kept a Buy rating on June 11. The stock has dropped to its lowest level in four years compared to the U.S. energy index, which has reversed the gains from its major acquisitions. The firm views this decline as a chance to invest in a company that can stay strong and stand out, while OPEC's latest approach challenges others. Citi continues to see strong upside in the shares. An underground network of pipelines transporting oil through an expansive terrain. During the June 9 episode, Cramer recommended to 'sell' ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and buy another, as he said: 'I like your idea. I like your idea. I like your idea. I think Lily's at a great level, and Conoco is not nearly as all the oils go to like 4 or 5% yield, this is only three and a half. I want you to sell the Conoco and buy the Lilly. I like that idea.' ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is involved in the exploration, production, transportation, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, LNG, and related products. The company's operations span both unconventional and conventional assets, including global LNG projects, oil sands, and a broad range of exploration prospects. While we acknowledge the potential of COP as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
