Facebook’s third-quarter earnings report told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the social media giant has a chance at a comeback after months of recurring issues around data privacy.
“The important thing here is that a turn is even possible ,” the “Mad Money” host said after shares of Facebook closed nearly 4 percent higher on Wednesday.
“Advertisers are spending a fortune on Instagram stories,” he continued. “I believe Facebook will be able to monetize many of its other products and while I can’t say it’s back, I do think the company’s now in a position to under-promise and over-deliver, particularly on expenses.”
Cramer also lamented the trading action in FANG, the acronym he uses to talk about the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet. For more on that, click here.
Following in the path of the tech-savvy Domino’s Pizza, fast-casual chain Wingstop is turning its focus to digital as customers become increasingly familiar with its web-based platforms, Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison told CNBC on Wednesday.
“Today, … 25 percent of our revenue comes from digital,” Morrison said in an exclusive interview with Cramer.
With Wingstop’s plans to launch delivery across its restaurant base, build its own customer-facing website and mobile app, and start using natural voice recognition to streamline ordering, that percentage could soon grow, the CEO said.
Click here to watch and read more about his interview.
Cramer was immediately intrigued when shares of Masco, a home supply manufacturer, managed to surge more than 7 percent after the company’s disappointing earnings report on Tuesday.
Most news headlines painted Masco’s quarter as weak, pressured by a slowing housing sector, rising raw costs, a hawkish Federal Reserve, higher tariffs and a muted full-year forecast.
But the action in the stock indicated otherwise, sending Cramer “a classic signal that the psychology of the market may be changing, and changing for the better.”
Click here for more.
The pockets of weakness in Clorox’s first-quarter earnings report, particularly with its charcoal-based and RenewLife supplement products, were “temporary” whiffs, Chairman and CEO Benno Dorer told Cramer on Wednesday.
“We are facing temporary issues that are related to out of stocks following supply chain problems” with RenewLife, the CEO said. “We’re seeing two things: first of all, we’ve seen very irregular ordering patterns from major customers and that is nothing special in the vitamins, minerals, supplements category, but newer to us. And then we’ve made some integration-related, very good changes for us in the long term, that have hurt us in the last quarter.”
Still, the household and personal products maker is “executing very well in a tough environment” and will likely benefit over the longer term from its initiatives, Dorer said.
Click here for his full interview.
Nick Akins, the chairman and CEO of the largest power transmission network in the United States, is keeping a close eye on the country’s economic patterns, he told Cramer in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
“Oil and gas is still doing fine, industrials grew by 2.4 percent, but we saw residential and commercial growth come down a little bit,” the American Electric Power chief said. “We think it’s really driven by strong dollar; certainly some of the tariffs are having an impact on non-oil-and-gas-related activities — chemicals and so forth — and we’re seeing some level of tempering, so we’re watching that very closely as we go forward.”
Residential and commercial growth are important indicators for the stability of the economy and for AEP, an electric utility giant at the center of large-scale power generation.
“It sort of erodes confidence when you see that kind of activity start to temper in that regard, particularly commercial load, which is your mom-and-pop stores and commercial big box stores,” Akins told Cramer. “You want to make sure that that continues to progress, because residential will follow.”
Click here for his full interview.
In Cramer’s lightning round, he shared his take on callers’ favorite stocks:
XPO Logistics Inc.: “XPO reported after the close and one of their clients filed for bankruptcy and it looks like that’s going to bring the stock down $4. [CEO] Brad Jacobs is doing a good job. I think the weakness caused by this bankruptcy might be an opportunity to buy.”
Align Technology Inc.: “That was not a good quarter. This did surprise me. Finally the competition is coming up to them and there are other companies that want to be against Invisalign and they did not do the number and that was shocking to me.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet.
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