Adam Jeffery | CNBC. Jim Cramer weighed in on the financial cohort’s impact on the market. ·CNBC
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Jim Cramer sees one crucial element of an investor's portfolio that is often underestimated-execution. At the end of the day, it cannot be overlooked. Good leadership is what drives both the company and the stock. And, unfortunately, Cramer is seeing this element disregarded more and more each day.
"We don't have enough respect for execution. Nobody talks about it, about the sheer power of execution, of a management team fulfilling unmet needs or changing course during changing times. Yet, it's a huge part of this terrific, long-term rally," the "Mad Money" host said.
For example, there is a misperception that stocks are too expensive right now. Cramer was surprised to see various articles released by financial news outlets expressing concern on Wednesday that Costco (NASDAQ: COST) would disappoint, citing it was too "richly valued."
Well, Costco released earnings early on Thursday morning and reported an amazing 8 percent same-store-sales growth for the quarter and a 4 percent gain in February. In fact, considering how strong CEO Craig Jelinek and his team are, Cramer considers this stock to be both undervalued and underestimated.
"Many of these stocks belong to companies that are managed by people who are capable of going well outside what's expected them, rendering their stocks cheap, even as they seemed very expensive," Cramer added.
So while many companies might look expensive on paper, Cramer keeps his eye on the leadership of a company. All it takes is one takeover bid or release of terrific results to shed entirely different results on to a stock.
Cramer has noticed that aerospace and defense stocks have been gaining momentum since the Ebola-induced October lows. It is one of the groups that have been leading the market to power higher in its recent historic run.
Just taking a look at the sector, Boeing (NYSE: BA) is up 32 percent, Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) up 38 percent, United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) up 24 percent and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD)is up 18 percent since October. What a powerhouse!
Unfortunately, the rise in aerospace and defense stocks is correlated to a rise in conflict. For instance, Cramer sees events such as the U.S. dealing with ISIS, shooting wars in Ukraine and the rise of terrorism all around the globe could mean an increase in defense spending.
"Countries across the globe are realizing that they can't rely on the United States to be the world's policeman all the time. We don't have the money or the inclination anymore," Cramer said.
There is one aerospace and defense play that Cramer pinned as a stock that has been quietly flying under-the-radar, and could fly higher. Orbital ATK designs, builds and delivers space, defense and aviation systems around the world.
The company is still a baby as it was created less than a month ago when Alliant Techsystems merged with Orbital Sciences, and then spun off its recreational gun business as Vista Outdoor (: VSTO'WI).
And while it might be a small player now with a market cap of only $4 billion, Cramer thinks it will go much higher considering the fact that the stock is significantly cheaper than its competitors in the same space.
Even some of Cramer's most frustrating stocks, the cult stocks, have strangely made a comeback recently. But thankfully, the market has been smart enough to keep the cults to a minimum, and there haven't been many new cult stocks. It's just the same old culties that Cramer has been steering clear of for years.
The "Mad Money" host defines cult stocks like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) as those stocks which are not valued traditionally. The stocks do not trade based on usual metrics such as earnings; they trade on how sexy the press release is from the company, how snazzy a car is or how many new subscribers it gets for TV streaming.
For someone who believes that numbers don't lie, it's just too much work to buy a stock that doesn't trade based on numbers. It's too darned difficult for Cramer!
Nevertheless, the cult stocks have picked up some game recently in the market.
"We've dealt with them before and we can deal with them again. Maybe that's all there is to it?"
A few days ago February auto sales numbers were announced, and with exception of General Motors (NYSE: GM), the numbers weren't so great.
Some may speculate that it could be the cold weather affecting large regions of the country that have kept shoppers indoors and not buying cars. But what if something else is wrong?
A concerned Cramer decided to dive in further as to what the cause could be, and sat down with DealerTrak Technologies (NASDAQ: TRAK) CEO Mark O'Neil.
DealerTrak is a company that provides car dealerships with software solutions that manage sales, finance, inventory, digital marketing and efficiency improving platforms. So if there is any company that is plugged into auto statistics, it is DealerTrak.
"No, it's nothing we should worry about. We did an analysis of all 50 states, and looked at the 18 states that were impacted by weather and compared their volumes to the non-impacted states. Our conclusion was unequivocally that this is a weather driven event," O'Neil said.
In the Lightning Round, Cramer gave his take on a few caller favorite stocks:
Control4 Corp (NASDAQ: CTRL): "This software for home entertainment is like 'No, man! It's hard enough to be Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM)!' I don't want a Control4."
Ziopharm Oncology (NASDAQ: ZIOP): "I think we missed this. I think I'm late on it, and I think it's gone too far. I'm sorry."
