Mad Money

Cramer Remix: The truth about Apple ahead of its earnings report

Cramer Remix: The truth about Apple ahead of its earnings report
VIDEO1:1201:12
Cramer Remix: The truth about Apple ahead of its earnings report

Expectations are sky-high for Apple's after-the-bell earnings report on Tuesday, and Jim Cramer thinks they are justified.

"Apple's doing so many things right. It's making the best products, developing a deep ecosystem with a substantial service revenue stream," the "Mad Money" host said

Plus, Apple's upcoming iPhone release is rumored to have an array of new features that makes the smartphone more functional and easier to handle, which should boost sales and new customer numbers, Cramer said.

The company also stands to massively benefit from repatriation if the administration is able to implement it. All said and done, Cramer says investors should own the stock, not trade it, and eager buyers should hope for a post-earnings dip so they can buy it at a discount.

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As the busiest week of earnings season came to a close, Cramer breathed a sigh of relief despite Friday's mild pullback caused by a weaker-than-expected GDP number.

The "Mad Money" host said that with the federal government funded through the next week, investors can finally relax and gear up for yet another earnings-filled agenda.

On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices reports earnings, and after shares of competitor Intel slid on its earnings miss on Thursday, Cramer is unsure that even the best of earnings reports from this chipmaker will garner a positive market reaction.

Aside from Apple, Tuesday will bring an earnings report from health-care retailer CVS, where Cramer says there could be a hidden upside to earnings.

"It's hard to really dislike a well run company like this that sells at just 13 times earnings. I say wait and see. Maybe numbers come down, maybe that's your chance," the "Mad Money" host said.

On Wednesday, the market will get Facebook's results. The social media colossus reports earnings after the bell, and unless its numbers are substantially better, Cramer expects a slight sell-off.

"I like how competitive Facebook is," Cramer said. "If you don't own it now, I think you might as well wait to see if we get that kind of weird sell-off that we usually get even after it reports a great number."

The gaming sector is one of Cramer's favorite secular growth stories in the stay-at-home economy, and Activision Blizzard's earnings reports have a tendency to spur selling, which may happen when it releases numbers on Thursday.

"I say the trend's your friend," Cramer said. "This franchise is worth buying if it gets hit."

The Labor Department will release its monthly non-farm payroll data on Friday. The statistics could have a detrimental effect on bank stocks if they are low, but Cramer expects the opposite.

"If April turns out to have been a robust hiring month, and I think it will be, that gives the Fed breathing room to raise interest rates twice, and therefore the bank stocks will soar," he said.

Jeff Bezos
Gary Cameron | Reuters

When Amazon and Alphabet reported earnings at the same exact time Thursday night, Cramer found it difficult to compare the two and pick a winner.

"The problem is that in some ways, this is a real apples-to-oranges situation," the "Mad Money" host said.

Amazon, for example, chooses to promote faith-based investing, assuring shareholders that their India business will flourish and that robots will save time at their fulfillment centers.

Alphabet went about energizing investors in a different way. They talked about how their search engines help local businesses and about their cloud operations, which compete with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Cramer also spoke with Stephen Milligan, the CEO of Western Digital, a data storage player and one of the world's biggest hard disk drive manufacturers.

Milligan said that the company's longtime partnership with troubled electronics giant Toshiba was worth preserving despite the Japanese giant's current difficulties.

"The joint venture that we've had with Toshiba is 17 years running. I would contend that it's probably one of the most successful technology joint ventures in the history of our industry. And so our first goal is let's keep that joint venture healthy," Milligan told Cramer on Friday.

While the CEO acknowledged that helping Toshiba could create a bit of an overhang in terms of how investors perceive Western Digital, his main focus remained on growing his own business.

"Rest assured, we're going to do our very best to make sure that we protect our interests and advance not only our position, but the stakeholders that Toshiba has, and really come to a resolution that helps us to continue to be successful going forward," the CEO said.

Jean-Jacques Bienaime, CEO, BioMarin Pharmaceuticals
Mark Neuling | CNBC

Upon the release of BioMarin's orphan drug Brineura, which made headlines for its $702,000-per-year price tag, chairman and CEO JJ Bienaimé said the system will have the final say on whether the sky-high price is fair.

"Obviously, the system will have to determine that," he told Cramer on Friday. But I would say that CLN2, the disease that Brineura is being used for, is an absolutely devastating neurodegenerative disorder for which, unfortunately, the patients will lose their life, most of the time by [age] 12."

And although Washington lawmakers have knocked pharmaceutical companies for high drug costs, Bienaimé said most policymakers understand the industry's inevitable trial-and-error aspects.

"I think, hopefully, ... if there is any kind of regulations coming around health care, that they will make sure that those regulations protect innovation and protect innovative biotech companies," Bienaimé said.

Finally, Cramer spoke with AGCO Chairman, President and CEO Martin Richenhagen to understand more about how President Donald Trump's protectionist slant might affect the agricultural landscape.

AGCO manufactures agricultural equipment like tractors that require steel to produce. Richenhagen said that if the current administration were to follow through with placing high tariffs on non-U.S. steel, the effects would be felt industry-wide.

"For us, of course, if steel's prices would go up because of this kind of protectionism, it wouldn't be so good because finally our customers would have to pay. So that's true for all of us, for the whole industry," the CEO told Cramer on Friday.

Richenhagen added that while the move would benefit the steel industry, it was "not really a great strategy" to implement tariffs without explicitly informing consumers of their effects.

"All kind of protectionism finally has to be paid for," he said. "And I think consumers should know that."

In Cramer's lightning round, he rattled off his take on some caller favorite stocks, including:

Bank of the Internet USA: "I don't know. Too much risk there, my friend. I'd rather own JPMorgan. I think that's a little more, let's just say, strong."

Agilent Technologies: "Oh my, I like Agilent so much. I like the quarter. You can win two ways here: you can win on an acquisition or you can win on earnings. That's how good that quarter was. Terrific."

Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine

Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com