We’re adding to 2 stocks that had strong earnings but saw tepid market reactions
We’re buying 150 shares of Halliburton (HAL) at roughly $27.65 each and 50 shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) at roughly $172.86 each. Following Monday’s trades, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust will own 2,525 shares of HAL, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to 2.41% from 2.27% and 375 shares of JNJ, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to 2.24% from 1.94%. We’re adding to our positions in two companies that reported better-than-expected earnings last week but had tepid reactions to the quarter. The stocks are also in two sectors that we think are right for this rough market: oil and health care. Halliburton reported a strong quarterly beat , thanks to big spending in North America and in internationally where energy production activity is accelerating. After seven to eight years of industry underinvestment and a tight market, we believe management in its forward commentary that the foundation is set for a multiyear upcycle that will drive margin expansion and strong earnings growth. As for J & J, we thought the company posted a strong result with another quarter of above industry growth from its Pharmaceuticals unit, where sales increased 12.3% on an adjusted operational basis. MedTech may have been a slight miss in the quarter, but we believe trends remain positive here thanks to a recovery in procedures that were delayed during the Covid pandemic recovery and also new launches. The only line items we didn’t like were the sluggishness in Skin Health/Beauty sales, but we believe it can be easily explained by difficult year-over-year comps and supply chain challenges that will be fixed in the back half of the year. The strong U.S. dollar also weighed on the company’s full-year earnings per share outlook, but now we believe this headwind is fully reflected in the stock price. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long HAL and J & J. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
