CNBC’s Jim Cramer says digital is the common thread between the diverging quarterly earnings results in Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kohl’s and Target. The “Mad Money” host sits down with the CEOs of Okta and Tableau Software to get insight into how they’re playing an integral role in supplying corporations with tools that they need to compete in the modern world.
Breaking down Home Depot, Lowe’s quarter reports
Michael Bocchieri | Getty Images News | Getty Images
CNBC’s said Wednesday that home repair rivals Home Depot and Lowe’s had a common thread in their respective quarterly reports: e-commerce.
“These days, people expect everything to be frictionless,” the “Mad Money” host said. “The moment they hit any kind of problem, any speed bump, they just take their business elsewhere.”
Lowe’s shares rallied nearly 4% to $117.83 during the trading day on the heels of its third-quarter earnings beat and forecast raise.
On the other hand, Home Depot attributed its same-store sales and revenue shortfalls, in its earnings report out Tuesday, to its digital platforms.
Home Depot’s shares have fallen more than 7% from Monday’s close.
“If your website doesn’t run smoothly, you’re losing a lot of business. Lowe’s understands that, now,” Cramer said.
Okta on supplying login capabilities to Fox studios and MLB.com
Todd McKinnon, CEO, Okta
Olivia Michael | CNBC
Reliable access to websites and data is a key component to the digital age, and Okta is a provider to recognizable companies like Major League Baseball and Disney‘s 20th Century Fox studios.
With Okta, baseball fans can login to their MLB.com accounts to watch games online in out-of-market areas, CEO Todd McKinnon told Cramer in a one-on-one interview.
“So they don’t have to worry about the login part,” he said. The MLB “can get that from us and focus on what they’re really great at, which is getting the baseball content to the subscribers.”
As for Fox studios, the identity management provider built a system that can control how third-party creatives can access information and collaborate on film and TV productions, McKinnon said.
In giving partner companies access to a particular movie or other assets, “you have to make an identity-centric environment so it knows about every partner … [that gives] access to the movie and take away access when they don’t need it.”
What earnings reports from Kohl’s, Target say about the retail landscape
A shopper prepares to pay for items at a Kohl’s department store in Peru, Illinois, May 16, 2019.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tariffs on Chinese imports are not the biggest weight on the retail cohort, according to Cramer.
Retailers must win in the current environment by either having a strong online presence or offering discount prices, he told viewers.
“If you’re not offering a great digital experience or nearly unbeatable bargains … you are in trouble,” he said after Wall Street received a mixed bag of earnings reports from the industry.
The winners and losers in retail are singing diverging tunes about the consumer, making it tough to get a read on the broader economy from the industry, Cramer said. He made his case by highlighting the earnings beat and raised guidance from Target and earnings miss and cut from Kohl’s in their latest quarterly reports.
The role of Big Data in modern business
Adam Selipsky, CEO, Tableau Software
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Cramer sat down with Tableau Software CEO Adam Selipsky to get a better understanding of what the data visualization firm is doing to help corporations make sense of their businesses.
The company was acquired by Salesforce.com earlier this year.
“I think we’re really in this data deluge where everyone’s inundated with data and having it … dumped all over your head doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to succeed with it,” Selipsky said. “What you need to do is to be able to organize it and manage it then critically to analyze it and that’s why Tableau exists to help people see and understand data to analyze it.”
Cramer’s lightning round
In Cramer’s lightning round, the “Mad Money” host gives his thoughts on callers’ stock picks of the day in rapid speed.
Walmart: “I like Walmart. I think that Walmart’s terrific. I wouldn’t sell that one at all. As a matter of fact, I expect the stock to be higher pretty soon after that great quarter.”
Granite Construction: With “so much rancor in Washington, I don’t think there could possibly be an infrastructure bill. Let’s stay away.”
Twist Bioscience: “It is way too risky.”
Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Disney, Salesforce.com and Kohl’s.
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