Investors still have time to take advantage of the broad rotation out of “safe” food and drug stocks and into faster-growing stocks like the semiconductor plays, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday.
The rotation involved people selling shares of companies like drugmaker Merck and spice guru McCormick & Co. and snapping up shares of chipmakers including Texas Instruments, Xilinx and Lam Research, all of which recently reported strong quarters. The mixed action resulted in a placid trading day for the major averages.
Why isn’t it too late? Because, according to Cramer, a rotation is “rarely a one-day phenomenon.”
“It’s not too late to buy the newly loved chipmakers, which could be down tomorrow off of Intel, [or] to trim the now-despised safety stocks, especially if you have huge profits and you don’t want to see them drown without a life raft,” the “Mad Money” host said.
Better yet, shares of Texas Instruments and Lam Research, for example, are “still cheap” even after their intraday rallies, which sent Texas Instruments’ stock up nearly 7 percent and Lam Research’s up more than 15 percent, Cramer said.
He noted that Lam Research’s new CEO, Tim Archer, just announced a $5 billion buyback, which is usually a sign that the company’s shares are close to bottoming.
“You heard me: even after these incredible moves, Lam and Texas Instruments can still be bought,” Cramer argued. “Xilinx is more expensive, but the other two are simply too cheap to ignore. Why else would Lam try to buy back a quarter of its share count?”
Cramer attributed this marketwide shift to Wall Street money managers, some of whom likely realized that they were overpaying for certain stocks and not taking advantage of the discounts in others.
“Right now, behind the scenes, practically every money manager out there is wondering if it is time to swap out of the safety stocks and into some of the more economically sensitive groups that have gotten too cheap to ignore,” he said. “Today, fund managers just said, ‘What the heck do I need safety for when it is so darned overpriced?'”
Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com
