♪ ♪ i'm jim cramer, and welcome to my world. >> you need to get in the game. >> firms are going to go out of business, and he is nuts! they're nuts! they know nothing. >> i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. >> "mad money," you can't afford to miss it. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. my job is just to save you some money. i'm trying to coach and teach here so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. they rest. they relax. they recharge. and now they roar. [ roar ]

these are new stocks that are roaring. [ roar ] think about it. during the first quarter, we saw tremendous gains in home builders, banks and high-rolling expensive technology stocks, and then you know what happened? they flat-lined. i mean, hey, like paddles clear. they died. hideous. painful. the whole month you couldn't touch these things. what would happen just today in one session? this morning we got a terrific number from pulte group, homebuilder, which is very strong. to the moon, alice. wasn't this group supposed to be rolling over? the stock had just gone from $7.60, left for dead, and break-out right through its earlier high, closing at $ 9.58. i want that kind of move for you.

pulte immediately took the housing index, and i was told it was rolling over and reversed it skyward. a gigantic impending wholesale number at 10:00 today. best in a long time. makes me feel right about this housing bottom. that's great news. how about these banks? after the close, spain, they downgraded spain. there's going to be pressure on it. you know what, you're going to buy it. they're at last perking up, and i think they're reflecting the fact that loan demand could be picking up. why? remember when i told you last night we want more employment, which would bring more demand for loans and higher interest rates. natural. at this stage of the business cycle, banks can make money three ways. through fees, but that's been that's the difference what they pay you for your deposits, what they make on each loan, and i'm getting 3.58% on a loan that's

going to close for me tomorrow. 3.58% is what i'm getting, and believe me, no bank is going to make money on that kind of loan. you may not think this makes sense, but banks need rates to go higher, not lower, and i think the idea that higher rates could be down the road and that we are hitting the bottom right now, which is why i want you to get a mortgage if you have it, i think that's what's at work. especially i don't think it will do anything to keep rates down if they start going up naturally. so the money is going to return to wells fargo, u.s. bancorp, or even jp morgan, which will probably be down a buck tomorrow off of spain. hey, you know what, we used to do this on the trading desk. bring it in. i have to tell you that i think this is among the most undervalued groups in this whole market. actionalertsplus.com owns jp morgan and american express and u.s. bank corp. you know what, even though american express just hit a 52-week high today, i'm not a seller. the trust is not selling.

u.s. bank corp. downgraded by a slew of firms. i think they're also wrong. dead wrong. i want to take the other side of their trade. as for jp morgan, in my talks with people who work there, i'm struck by how bullish they are, and these guys are realists, by the way. they seem to be ready for recovery. want to know how bullish i am on the banks? my charitable trust owns sun trust, sti, for heavens sake. it hasn't even been blessed by the fed to start returning capital. if i didn't believe so strongly in diversification, you know what, i would go take down some -- buy, buy, buy -- wells fargo too. i'm going to take it one step further. the trust where all the proceeds go to charity has been buying -- oh, man, i can't believe this -- aig. yes. aig, in part because it owns a passel of toxic mortgage bonds, and also because ben is a great ceo. what could have been worse last year? aig? what could be better now? aig. how about these tech stocks. all the themes that have been hammered exploded higher today in a huge way.

equinox, a pure play on big data farms where all the information stored in the cloud. 19 point move today. that's the kind of move you see in a takeover. going from 150 to 169. how about the citirx software, a service cloud play. stock ignited for 9.5 point move for $77. $86. wow, i want that. they have been having a hideous april. so much for that. hey, look for salesforce.com, crm, to take out its high soon mark benioff, he has it going. how about total cramer fave xilinx? you need chips from xylinx to make sure its smartphone can get the data and video it needs so you can watch mlb.com while pretending what your data is yadayadayad'ing about. i have been waiting for a fabulous break-out quarter here. looks like we got it. i don't think it's over because after the close tonight amazon reported a monster, a blow-out

of the 18-wheeler variety, and i think it's going to juice things again tomorrow. i got to tell you, i got caught off guard. i did not think amazon could do this kind of number because the ceo jeff bezos told us it was a spend to win quarter, which is code for, like, we're going to spend too much and you're not going to make any money in the earnings per share. spending brought amazon this quarter, and please keep spending. you know what else i believe? yesterday we were resting, relaxing, recharging, and is ready to -- [ growling ] >> roar. remember the oils? they were so terrible. not just in april. the whole darn year they've under performed. in fact, they've been the primary underperformer. ironic, isn't it, given that crude broke out new highs this year? tells you about that crazy relationship. they come back with a vengeance, and they're doing it without the putative leader, exxon mobil, which reported a really bad

quarter. the most overrated company in the world perhaps. [ booing ] [ baby crying ] >> i see chevron getting jiggy here. i like the way occidental shaping up. i just did. you know what really looks attractive here? the domestic oil shale plays. namely continental resources. remember that? and cramer favee, eog. they've been resting of late, and people had given up on them. today it looks like they're back in action. i didn't want to say work because it means that people will have to -- wouldn't surprise me if it's at 108 and it goes up within the next ten sessions. please don't forget two charitable trust names that are just beginning their move. so often when i see rallies in this nascency where stocks have been stuck in the mud for ages, i know what you are thinking. your first instinct is to say finally, finally can i get rid of that loser stock. you know at the exact time you're looking through that prism, you have to recognize there are tons of investors that are waiting on the sidelines for this move in order to pile in, not pile out. it's not too late to buy them.

the laggards of april are now leading. the otherwise and techs have rested, relaxed, recharged, and now, yes, they are roaring. you haven't missed a thing. in fact, these moves may be an harbinger of something bigger. i'm smashing every shibboleth tonight. buy in may and go away? stranger things have happened. let's go to michael in new york. please, michael. >> hey, mr. cramer. first off, i would like to thank you very much with helping me and a lot of other people out. my question is on -- >> thank you. >> caller: in their recent earnings they mentioned an increase in demand for gorilla glass, and it's used in the apple television, and i was wondering how you feel about that long-term as an investment. thanks very much. >> i'm hoping this is the break-out quarter because i like these guys so much. we've had the cfo on, but i got to tell you, i need to see more than one good quarter from corning. i need to see more than one good quarter because they have disappointed after good quarters. i'm willing to miss the next two points to see if i get a good

quarter. let's go to donna in texas. donna. >> caller: hey, jim. how are you? >> pretty good, donna. how about you? >> caller: i'm doing fine. jim, my husband and i watch "mad money" practically every day, and we count on your help for small investors like us. >> that is the secret. that is the secret. that's what i'm trying to do. to appeal to you. i don't want the hedge funds. i can't beat those guys off with a stick. i want you watching. how can i help? >> caller: well, you're one of a kind, jim. >> thank you. >> caller: we bought ups last september, so we've been more than pleased with its performance. you know, over the past seven months. but today it seemed like it got unduly hammered, especially this morning. >> well, i got to tell you, donna, they weren't as upbeat as i would have liked. when i went through the conference call, i think they told a better story than in the press release. understand they talked themselves down, and when you do that, ala caterpillar yesterday,

it does tend to rankle people. i agree with your agreement. i bet you six months from now that stock is higher even as it may be six hours from now lower. i would own ups. this year april is going out like a lion. the laggards are now leading. the banks, home builders, techs, and the oils, they've relaxed, they've recharged, and you know what, i think they are roaring. "mad money" will be right back. >> coming up, the company is not in apple's barrel stand a chance? cramer is checking the aisles of avnet's supermarket to find out in his earnings exclusive with its ceo. and, later, hot tamale? chipotle did it again. blowing past analyst expectations when it reported, but it's lost some heat recently. can it go from mild to hot again? don't miss cramer's exclusive

with chipotle's big enchilada. plus, the costco craze. they changed the way america shops, turning bargains into a billion dollar business. cramer previews their in-depth story with carl quintanilla just ahead. all coming up on "mad money".

how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies.

ever since the beginning of the year tech has been one of the main sectors leading the market higher although it paused in the month of april i think it might -- moving sideways for almost the whole month. i think it's time to bring general tech in for a physical, and that means checking in with avnet, the world's largest distributor of electronic components and a major seller of hardware.

i like to think of avnet as the big supermarket of tech on earth, which is why for years going all the way back to when i used to run the old hedge fund, i have used this company to get a read on the broader tech sector. so what's avnet saying? the company reported solid quarter this morning, off a 99 cents basis and inline revenues that fell. i'm thrilled to have rick hamada, ceo of avnet here to talk about the company's results and give us a read on the health of the technology industry. welcome back to "mad money". >> thank you, jim. glad to be here. >> i think that one of the things that mystifies people at home is that they will hear that a company had declining sales year-over-year, and yet, the stock, which was fabulous today, up $1.32, and the commentary is all positive, i know that a lot of hedge funds watch me at that 9:00 show i'm on, but on this we

have a lot of retail investors. can you explain how this could be the right moment for you even though i said sales were down year-over-year? >> it's a great point. i would tell you that we have a tale of two cities going on with our main businesses. as you know, our world is about components and computers, and we spoke in the last couple of quarters about the inventory correction taking place in the electronic component supply chain, and what we've seen now is on a short-term basis the team has dealt very well with that, and we were able to lay out and meet certain guidance expectations for the quarter that were right on the money. our i.t. business has been dealing with some longer term progression in their portfolio to improve some of the sub-performing regions, such as our european business, but they were also able to demonstrate progress in that business on that term. if you put the two stories together, we had a quarter that was very much to our expectations, but we had that supply chain correction to deal with that actually offset and put us at a different reset level to calculate our organic growth year-on-year. >> without giving away individual companies, because that's not your job to do it. i'm not going to put you in that spot, which were the -- of the

sectors, say, big data we talk a lot about. cloud. we talk about servers. which -- communications. which were the stand-out sectors that surprised you and have inventory so low that we're going to see customers start to put better numbers on, too? >> well, in our i.t. business, jim, we spoke about the continuing strength in industry standard servers and in our services business, and we also didn't highlight storage here, but storage -- remember, t.s. was down 5% year-on-year. storage was up 7% for us. relatively speaking, that's still a good strength area in the end equipment business. for our components business, it's more about the analog parts and the micro controllers, and we watch that on a commodity basis, and we didn't get any clear trends on any particular issues there overall, but in general a return to normal seasonality and sequential growth off december we took as a positive sign. >> now, you had also talked last time we had this terrible flooding in thailand. a big disk drive crisis. you had some inventory that actually made things better.

i would like to know where we are in that industry because a lot of companies are still citing amazingly even this quarter the shortage in drives for why they weren't able to make their numbers. >> yeah, jim. supply has not completely recovered. we obviously had a very, very -- we were very flattered in our results in december based off the inventory we went in with and what the spike in prices and profits were for december, and we had quantified that at the time. for the march quarter the supply hasn't completely caught up, but prices particularly in more of the desktop and notebook areas have abated a little bit, and supply is catching up, so it's closer. enterprise is still a little more constrained overall, but net-net we didn't see anywhere near the type of impact we had in the december quarter in the march quarter. >> okay. now, i was wondering. i know i agree with you on the inventory thesis. someone who is very close to intel and i were talking and what we were concerned about, is there ever a shrinking, a miniaturization where it just turns out that people don't care

anymore? that -- i have a p.c. i could put a man on the moon with this pc with how much power it has in it. is there a level where the parts the new parts won't mean anything, and we're just kind of like, well, we have them and no one cares how much more powerful they are? >> well, jim, you know, moore's law has been very very powerful and very constant for quite a while, and yes, we're at 28 nanometers now and talking about moving to 14, and each one of these steps in geometry will open up new possibilities for the wonderful things that these components of technology can do. so even though those state-of-the-art geometries are not a big percentage of the overall market today, as they come to market and the possibilities and the opportunities that they create, we'll see where it goes from here, but you and i know over many, many years the power of moore's law has played out into exciting opportunities that none of us could have envisioned ten years ago. >> that's gordon moore, one of the founders of intel, and a

great, great man. came up with the theory about how things get smaller and smaller over time. one last line of inquiry because this is fascinating to me. you are -- and i said this to you and went back and forth with your predecessor -- the only company i deal with other than auto zone that has been a smart buyer of its stock. you literally have timed it so when you think it's the right price, it is. why, one, do you know how to do that, because you are really in the distribution business, and two, you feel that this is a -- have you slowed it down. in the mid 30s you're not a buyer, but walk me through the process of why then, why now, and how you knew to buy it when it was such a great time to buy. >> well, jim, remember now, we hadn't had a buy-back for about ten years, and our consistent capital allocation strategy goes like this. organic growth. number two, valuing creating m&a, and then we're going to look at opportunities to return to shareholders, and then we just recently found ourselves in that position.

concurrently our equity was valued pretty much at or around the book value, and we decided it was a really good investment to go ahead and make that commitment, and at the time we told you, we were going to be as disciplined about buying back our stock as we are in evaluating organic growth and m&a opportunity, and count on us to continue that particular discipline, and right now, yeah, it sure looks good, but we -- i'm not sure we had a crystal ball that had it all out there, but our disciplined approach to how we allocate our capital, you can count on us to continue that. >> well, let's put it this way. you came on. you told people you were buying. that was my thing to tell people to buy because i knew you were smart guys, and we had a home run. i want to thank you, rick. you guys are terrific. thank you for the great job you do for shareholders. >> thank you, jim. >> guys, this is a real smart company, and they have the pulse. i think he tells a bullish story for tech, which, by the way, is, therefore, a very bullish story for avt. stay with cramer. >> coming up, hot tamale? chipotle did it again. going past analyst expectations

when it reported, but it's lost some heat recently. can it go from mild to hot again? don't miss cramer's exclusive with chipotle's big enchilada. later, nice rims. is it time to take this wheel and tire maker for a ride? cramer is talking to the ceo of titan international fresh off their blow-out earnings release. their blow-out earnings release. all coming up on "mad money".

after spending most of the first quarter living on the new high list, lately chipotle seems to be treading water. you know they're one of the my favorite growth stocks out there. a company with a brilliant concept. the idea that fast food, quick service can be good tasting and more importantly, good for you. it's what they call food with integrity. still got a lot of room to expand domestically and internationally. they've only just begun there. however, ever since the company reported a week ago the stock has been sliding. chipotle delivered what looked to be an excellent quarter. off $1.93 basis and higher than expected revenues. 12.7 increase in same store sales. best in six years. also the best of any restaurant chain i follow. i follow everybody. the stock had run up so much, going into the release, it lost

11 points the next day. it continued to sink and bounced a little in the last few days. maybe off panera's good number, and now chipotle got hit with the downgrade because the comparisons are about to get more difficult into the second half of the year. is this the pullback we've been waiting for ages for, or is chipotle running out of steam? i think it's the former, but let's check in with jack hartung, chipotle's terrific chief financial officer and find out where they're headed. welcome back to "mad money". >> thanks, jim. great to be back with you. >> you did 12%. everybody else i know did 6%, 5%, 4%. how were you able to blow away the numbers and do double digits when no one else has even come near you? >> you know, jim, most of our comp was from transactions. we did a price increase in the middle of last year, and so a little more than 4% of the comp was from menu price then fixed transactions, and frankly, it's our continued focus year after year on making sure our food quality is the highest it can be. our food, you know, tastes delicious.

we've been working on for many, many years now a people culture where we hire the very best people and then we empower them to provide the best experience they can to our customers, and so our customers love chipotle. they keep coming back more often, and they're telling their friends to come as well. most of it's just return visits and additional visits from existing customers. >> all right. i have to admit, for the first time i was worried because it starts out our people culture is the key driver of our business. delighted with how we built a strong culture. i'm looking at the store sales count. we only have twenty in new jersey. i live there. there's only 20 of them. if you continue that pace of growing that way, you will have to open something like 200 and then 230, then 300 stores a year. can you really get that many good people working at your restaurants? >> well, jim, i tell you, first of all, if we can't have -- if we're not confident we have great people to run the new restaurant we're going to open, we won't move from the current

guidance of 155 to 165, and we haven't said what we're going to open up next year, but we will only increase that number if we've got great people to run those restaurants. now, the best news that we have is 98% of our managers come from crew. we've got 30,000 employees, a little more than that. most of them are crew, and our teams are doing such a great job nowadays hiring terrific people and then developing them into being great performers in our chipotle restaurant, and then allowing the chance, empowering them to become our future leaders, and so almost 100% of our managers come from the troops, you know, that we already have in our restaurants today. we're confident that we're going to have lots of great leaders, but we will balance between how many restaurants we open, how many great managers we have to run those restaurants and make sure that we don't outpace one with the other. >> now, you were taking your time with shop-outs. i have a lot of friends who love it, urging me to go down there. i am going visit there this weekend. what i want to know is you said business is as good there as it is chipotle.

why don't we have one yet in new york? why don't we have one yet in l.a.? when are we going to start seeing these in other cities? >> we're going to open one more in washington d.c., jim, and with everything we do, with our international strategy, which is not a growth strategy. it's more we're introducing the chipotle brand in europe right now. we've introduced it in canada, but the same thing with chop house. we've introduced the chop house brand, and it's a new experience for customers, and it's going very, very well. we're also developing our team there as well. we have trained our crews to work with, you know, different ingredients and different cooking techniques, and that's going really well. one thing, jim, we've never been a company that's focused on the pace of growth. we're not in a hurry to grow. we focus more of our time on is buying the very best ingredients we can. we spend a lot of time on cooking techniques and the cooking equipment so the food will always be delicious, and we spend time on building this people culture that you have heard monty talk about that's very important to us, and we make sure that our business

model works such that we generate enough of a return on our restaurants so we can self-fund, and we have been able to do that for quite some time now, and the pace of growth really becomes secondary, and so we'll open a second one in chop house and if it continues to do well, eventually we'll get to other markets, but we want to do it at exactly the right pace and we want to take our time to do it right. >> it looks like there are people who recognize that because when i see social media, which can't be social media, the great thing about it, i know this from going to yelp and all the different -- trip advisor, it can't be that your social media is kind of in a remarkable moment, isn't it? >> well, it is. you know, we've got a lot of very, very loyal fans, and, you know, we do work with loyal media, but to be honest, any of the -- you know, the local media or the internet media that we get is from our fans. we have fans that are creating their own website. we have lots of fans that are going on to facebook, and there

are better spokesmen than we can be because they have this passion for chipotle. we're trying to educate, you know, through our advertising, and through the presence we have on social media. we're trying to just educate them on the things that we do. we would rather not market to people. we would rather just allow them to discover what's special about chipotle. the more they discover, the more impressed they are, the more loyal they become, the more they tell other people, and that's always going to be much more credible than any billboard or radio or any kind of other advertising that we do, and so we think social media has been going very well for us. >> all right. you're a cfo. you're the only cfo we only ever put on because i respect what chipotle is doing, and i am thrilled to speak to you. you have to deal with the numbers. the analysts are uniquely focused on the numbers. if anyone were to go through a conference call, you think you're from outer space. there's nothing about how great chipotle is, and it's more about inflation costs. what -- avocado costs are more important than the ethos of chipotle. how can individuals at home

understand what people write about you and try to deal with the fact that they go because it's a better place than anywhere else? >> well, jim, you know, the best advice i could give to somebody that's writing, whether it's an analyst or anybody following the company on a business side is to not think about the pace of growth, not think about this quarter or the last quarter or what the costs of ingredients are going to be because those are very short-term. what we think about all the time as a management team, and what i think anybody trying to figure out chipotle should figure out is how bright of a future do we have with the customer loyalty, with our focus on food quality and food with integrity. with the people culture -- the people culture, a lot of people don't get this, jim, that our people culture has allowed us to own all of our restaurants. not just the over 1,200 restaurants we have in the u.s., but all the restaurants in europe and chop house. this special people culture is developing leaders that can cause -- allow us to run more restaurants than most other restaurant companies, and so if you think about our future and

our ability to run the restaurants we run today, the potential to open up many, many restaurants, thousands of restaurants in the u.s., you mentioned we're just scratching the surface. just begun in europe. if you think about what our potential can be in the future, that's what is special about chipotle, and we already have a very loyal customer base, and we're allowing more and more customers to discover chipotle in an authentic wait way and learn about what we do that's different, and we think that's only going to increase our potential in the future. individual quarters and the exact pace of growth is secondary to us and building our potential over the future is where we focus our attention. >> that's why i have liked your stock for the last 3 -- that's jack hartung. thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you, jim. >> guys, you look at it short-term. you're going to get shaken out. people are counting out this company on the basis of one quarter. i have told you, it's an investment, no a trade. if you are trading, leave

chipotle and go buy something else. i'm staying with chipotle. stay with cramer. >> coming up, nice rims? is it time to take this tire and wheel maker for a ride? fresh off titan international's blow-out earnings release. the costco craze. they changed the way america shops. turning bargains into a billion dollar business. cramer previews their in-depth story with carl quintanilla just ahead. all coming up on "mad money".

remember, tweeters, we're celebrating the milestone of 500,000 followers this week. so whether you are follower numero uno or one million, you have the same chance. that's cramer hash tag cramer sweeps. and now it is time -- it is time for the lightning round.

play until this sound, and then the lightning round is over. are you ready skee-daddy? it's time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money". i want to start with chris in california. chris. >> caller: hey, jim. the master of making money cramer. how is it going? >> i like that title. what's going on? >> caller: hey, i'm calling about hasbro, ticker symbol has. >> i didn't like the quarter. i have to be honest. i didn't like the quarter, and i don't see a lot of upside, and i want to stay away from it frankly. ted in pennsylvania. ted. >> caller: jim, it's a pleasure. >> same. >> caller: digital domain media group. >> animation is very big. i think it works. let's go to john in new jersey john. >> caller: hi, jim. boo-yah to you. >> boo-yah to you, john. my neighbor, what's up? >> caller: i was wondering what's going on with clean energy fuel? >> it's a wild trader. i mean, it goes up a lot on news. it sells down on no news. goes up on news. you have to have faith in the

thing, but i have to tell you, it's had a very, very big move. let's go to chris in florida. chris. >> caller: b-b-b boo-yah. >> stuttering boo-yah back at you. what's up? >> caller: what's your 12-month projection for michael kors? >> i don't do 12-month projections, but i think kors is going higher. people didn't like coach. by the way, deckers, really terrible. i think that michael kors is a buy, buy, buy. maggie in new jersey. maggie. >> caller: boo-yah to you from beautiful south jersey. >> you bet it is, and i love it myself. >> caller: i'm new to personal investing, and i have great respect for your experience, and i appreciate you sharing your wisdom. >> thank you. >> caller: we have been discussing pipeline partnerships, and i have been very happy with my dividends from epb, el paso pipeline. >> i like that situation you're in. south jersey knows what it's doing. stay long. let's go to dan in connecticut. dan. >> caller: hey, jim. thanks for all you do for the individual investor. >> my pleasure.

>> i have done great with apple after your recommendation. i'm looking to make another move. what are your feelings about jc penney? >> i don't know. it went back to 33. it was too hyped and went all the way up. i think it marks time until ron johnson who, yes, created the genius bar and did a lot of great stuff with its stores. i think it takes some time. i think we'll revisit that stock in two quarters before we need to pull the trigger. let's go to james in texas. james. >> caller: boo-yah, cramer. >> boo-yah back. >> caller: been watching you in bulgaria is where i started watching you when mark haines would do promos saying you got to listen to this guy on "mad money". >> i miss him. >> caller: my question is for you, aflac. i know you have been down on them in the past, but they've got a lot less european exposure. >> that's exactly why i'm going to tell you it's okay. that quarter yesterday was a good one. i think aflac is coming back, and it's okay to buy. i love to see the ceo on the show. and that, ladies and gentlemen,

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>> so far this earnings season we have strong reports from great american industrial firms. yesterday we watched caterpillar get hammered after what looked to be a good quarter as the bears used management's downbeat outlook to beat the stock into submission. however, cat isn't the only machinery play that reported yesterday. last night we got results from a small and for me i didn't know it very well. little known company. it's been around in one form or another for over a century. titan international. twi. titan makes wheels and tires for off highway vehicles, the kind that are used in agriculture. think tractors, combines. well, think this one behind me. and irrigation equipment as well as off road earth moving, mining, and construction equipment. including the tires for caterpillar where they recently won a big multi-year supply contract. when it comes to agriculture, titan is dominant. it's about half the north american market for original equipment tires. one-third of the market for replacement tires.

40% of the market for wheels, and as we found out last night, business is booming. titan delivered a blow-out quarter excluding one-time items. their earnings came in at 78 cents a share. a massive 26 cent beat. revenue is much higher than expected. rising 65% year-over-year on just about every metric that matters this was a record quarter. there was no hair on this thing. and when the company that literally makes the wheels on which american agriculture construction turns, you have to feel better about the state of our economy. don't take it from me, though. let's talk to maurice taylor, first-time guest, chairman and ceo of titan international to learn more about this fabulous quarter and his company's prospects. mr. taylor, welcome to "mad money". have a seat. >> how are you doing, jim? >> pleasure. thank you. it's very rare that i ever see a ceo who just says, listen, it's all cylinders. every single part of your company is working right now, isn't it? >> well, yes, and it's been that way for over the last year and a half, and it's going to continue. you mentioned about our friends at cat, and they are banging,

and, of course, the big green machine is just rolling. what everybody misses is that both of those companies have two new ceos. >> right. >> and i'm the old boy, and no matter what you talk about or read, the numbers and this, it comes down to people. those guys are competitive boys. they're -- i've been in this over 40 years, and i think america is -- manufacturing is back where it should be. we're moving. >> now, one of the things that struck me -- >> this is small tire. >> that's a small tire. >> i know you wanted to bring in something that we couldn't fit it in this building. now, the raw cost of this. you talk -- there's a line in your conference call. you had that huge profit growth. your profit went up the same amount. that's highly unusual for any company i have ever seen. >> well, there's a lot of reasons for that. number one, we've added hundreds

of new employees, and to build a tire, this is not taking rubber and molding it and pouring it in. >> right. >> this is hand constructed. then it goes into a mold. so there's nylon and steel. there's everything. what's happened, it takes anywhere from a year to train a tire builder, and it takes a lot of effort, a lot of time, and so now the new people are coming on so when that comes, you -- efficiencies go up. your efficiencies go up. that drops to the bottom line. you'll see that all through this year, and probably into next year because we're adding people. >> i want to -- i was going on another line, but i got to stop you. what you just said is pretty amazing. we don't have people who know how to do this stuff in our country, right? you have to train them yourself. there's no community college you can go to. there's no tech school. you have to do it. >> correct. >> is that right? >> yes. >> should we have people? shouldn't we be training people to work at titan?

>> well, i'm a tool maker and welder by trade. i didn't go to school. i'm an engineer by schooling. business has to train a lot of the high skills. you do not call a plumber out. okay. he is not cheap. >> no. kidding me. >> you want a finished carpenter? he is not cheap. you have to have these trades that are taught generally by somebody in business. >> all right. i see. so it is tougher. okay. you seem to be the biggest beneficiary of the companies i talk to of both low natural gas and high oil, because the oil sands require these giant -- well, much bigger, and that gas is a big component of your raw costs. >> well, it's -- natural gas, as you know, is like a very low rate, and we have up in northern illinois where our factory is, we have a big cave, so we just stockpile it in there, and when you combine natural gas at $2

right now, buy all you can, so that's really helped too. it's been a mild winter. the winter has been very warm. things are going great. there's no -- which is good. >> one last thing. if people hear you, they want jobs in this country. where should they go to apply, because you are hiring like mad? >> well, we have thousands of applicants right now, so we're hiring in illinois, ohio, iowa, tennessee. >> you guys are doing great. this is a story i wish i had known before. i am glad you came to the set. i have now learned a lot. thank you. that's maurice taylor, chairman and ceo of titan international. guys, go to this conference call. you wouldn't believe it. there are some companies in this country that are dominant. this is a dominant company in its industry. stay with cramer. thank you, sir. >> thank you.

true believers. like me and everybody else. listen up. the costco craze. inside the warehouse giant premiers tonight at 9:00 p.m. and midnight eastern on cnbc. you know, i never do this, so it must be important, right? i got carl quintanilla. he put this one together. it is so exciting for all of us. carl, welcome to "mad money". >> jim, i'm in your house, which means i wear the uniform. it's a pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. >> oh, i'm thrilled that you're here, and i know that we've talked about costco a lot, and we are together on our morning show on "squawk on the street." the one we haven't talked about is the earnings per share.

costco is a stock the charitable trust owns, and the thing that most people are worried about because i want to go down to the numbers is that they pay people too much money. therefore, everybody else scrimps. you always hear about the $10 an hour. that's how you get the big money is you don't pay the labor that much. isn't the secret of behind the earnings per share that they do? >> sg&a has always been an issue for the street with this stock. average hourly wage? $20 an hour. $40,000 a year, actual living wage in this country, but turnover in retail, which we know is always an issue among the lowest in the industry. 10%. if a worker is there more than a year, it's 5%. >> some people have 80%, 90% in retail. >> right. so the issue for the company is not how do we pay them less, how do we scrimp on pay packages, how do we embellish them because the average person who is going to -- who is with us is going to be with us for a very long time. >> this is jim sinegol's culture.

he is the retired ceo. >> he stepped down at the end of last year, and this is a culture that he has put into motion. the question over time will be how much of it survives as he is no longer in the office day to day. >> you spoke to him about this. >> we did, and in a costco in pompano beach. >> let's see this. let's see this. >> does it bother you that people say, you know, you don't have to give him that nice a health package or you could pay them a little bit less and still get away with it. >> it doesn't bother me that they say it. it would bother me if we started to believe it. you could always cut something here or there, but, you know, it's more important -- we would rather look at it from how can we give them a little more? how can we make the package more attractive? we don't want to just pay more than every other retailer. we want to be demonstrably better than every other retailer. >> will the next ceo embrace that philosophy? >> the next ceo is basically a day one employee. not quite, but almost. i don't see the culture changing

a lot. also on executive comp, jim, his base pay roughly $350,000 since 1999. now, he owns a lot of stock, obviously, but his argument is that's what ceos are generally worth. why do they get paid a lot more? because others get it. it's that why is the other guy getting it that has driven executive comp, in his view, to unsustainable levels. >> now, do you think it's too much hyperbole to call him the steve jobs of retail? >> absolutely not. >> you think it's okay? >> he is a retailing genius. this bear has been stealing the scene from us for the past five minutes. >> stuffed animals always do that. >> they work with their vendors to lower prices, so a vendor brought this bear to them. costco said it's great. we want to sell it for $29.99. the vendor said it's never going to happen. they lowered the manufacturing price by 40% by getting into the plant, telling them where they can save money. this thing was a monster hit for them. in a category that people don't

generally go to costco for, which is toys. just one example. >> never thought of it. >> another example of discipline on pricing. >> you understand time and tv. anybody balk at that price increase? i paid up for the membership dues. did anybody balk? >> it was $5. they agonized over it. look, they struggled with it a lot because their membership somehow fixed income. it's a big deal. but it's one of the reasons the stock is more like an annuity than any other name because it's the lion's share of their profits. >> that's the way it should be. i pay to shop there. that's the costco craze. inside the warehouse giant. premiers tonight at 9:00 and midnight eastern on cnbc. you must watch it. carl, thank you so, so much. >> thanks for having me. >> good luck tonight. stick with cramer.

amazon huge after the bell. i was surprised. took my breath away. fantastic. on the other hand, the stock i have on the sell block, mdrx, all scripts cut in half.