Mad Money

Cramer Remix: Amazon knocked them down, but they’ll get back up again

Key Points
  • "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer predicts how stocks like Walgreens and United Health will fare in light of the Amazon health-care development.
  • Cramer also speaks to the CEOs of Nucor, Valley National and Trex.
  • In the lightning round, Cramer gets bearish on a home security play.
Cramer Remix: Amazon knocked them down, but they’ll get back up again
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Cramer Remix: Amazon knocked them down, but they’ll get back up again

When Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan announced a partnership to cut costs and improve services across the health care industry, CNBC's Jim Cramer had to weigh in.

The joint venture, organized by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon, will aim to be "free from profit-making incentives and constraints," the companies said on Tuesday.

"It's bad enough that the most important man in finance, the most important man in retail and the best investor alive are teaming up to tackle the problems of our health care system, but even worse for the industry, they're doing it for free," the "Mad Money" host said. "It is very hard to compete with someone who doesn't care about turning a profit."

What does that mean for investors? Cramer's answer was somewhat complicated, particularly for investors who can't wait to get in on the action.

"Sure, a stock like Walgreens, down over 5 percent today, [or] UnitedHealth, [down] more than 4 percent, they can rebound," he said. "But if the other companies that have been targeted by Jeff Bezos got hurt, then I think it's the same thing here. I think these kinds of companies are going to have to spend a little time in the penalty box, maybe at lower levels."

Nucor CEO on top concerns for 2018

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Nucor Chairman and CEO John Ferriola told CNBC that he wanted to hear a number of things from the country's chief.

"We'd like to hear some message on trade relief, trade actions, to deal with this illegally traded product that continues to flow into our country," Ferriola told Cramer.

"We'd also like to see some action on an infrastructure bill," the CEO said. "We're all seeing a robust recovery in the economy. That cannot be sustained without having a strong, modern, 21st-century infrastructure system, and we don't have that today. We need it desperately to maintain momentum in the economy."

Tasty prospects for Keurig Dr Pepper?

Bob Gamgort, chief executive officer at Keurig Green Mountain Inc., speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2018.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cramer knew he was "going against the grain" when he came out in favor of Keurig Green Mountain buying Dr Pepper Snapple.

But the "Mad Money" host couldn't brush aside the potential for $1.27 in earnings power and a 60-cent dividend.

"With those numbers, Keurig Dr Pepper, the new company, will immediately become the cheapest growth name in the consumer packaged goods space," he said.

Still, Cramer understood Wall Street's main question about the deal: why is the deal, in which the JAB Holdings-owned Keurig would buy Dr Pepper Snapple, selling at such a low price?

Trex CEO talks market opportunity

James Cline, CEO, Trex
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Trex President and CEO Jim Cline sees "huge opportunity" in the U.S. market as consumers choose his wood-plastic hybrid material for their homes over traditional wood, he said Tuesday.

In an interview with Cramer, Cline said that by linear feet sold, wood has 83 percent market share versus 17 percent for wood alternatives like Trex's flagship product.

"For every 1 point that we can move from wood, that's worth about $50 million of sales to us," Cline said. "Fortunately, there's a lot of wooden decks in North America. That's what we're focused on."

Cline said that when people buy houses, their first renovation project is often replacing their wooden deck. Better yet, households that already have wooden decks typically opt for other materials when they renovate.

"Back in 2010 we introduced the second generation of wood-plastic composite and we satisfied the needs of the consumer: no fade, very little scratch and a color palette that the consumers really appreciate," Cline said. "We put that together with a 25-year warranty, and the fact that we're a 95 [percent] recycled deck material gets people excited. And that's what drives the consumers to us. The consumers like the recycled content."

Valley National Bancorp CEO on turnaround plans

Ira Robbins, CEO, Valley National Bancorp
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Ira Robbins, the newly installed CEO of Valley National Bancorp, told Cramer on Tuesday that he has big plans to revamp the regional bank holding company.

"In the last 18 months, we've turned over the entire management team at Valley National Bank," Robbins said. "We're focused now on the growth of the organization, enhancing and improving the earnings profile of Valley National Bank, as well as changing the culture of Valley National Bank to be more appropriate with what's changing in the industry today."

But even with an improving economic environment, Robbins wondered how business-friendly the new tax laws would really be for regional banks like his.

"I think, for us, having 30 percent of our franchise in Florida creates an opportunity for us to outperform a lot of our Northeast peers," the CEO said. "I think we are in the perfect metro markets in Florida today. We have a great opportunity to have organic growth in that market and a large percentage of our growth is going to be proportionally based down in that Florida space."

Lightning round: Not alarmed by ALRM

In Cramer's lightning round, he zipped through his take on some callers' favorite stocks:

Alarm.com Holdings: "No. I've got too many home systems coming in. I don't want to touch them. But if they feel differently, they should come on the show."

XPO Logistics: "I keep waiting for the stock to go back to $90 so we can get back in for ActionAlerts. What a horse that is."

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of J.P. Morgan, Nucor and XPO Logistics.

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