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tv   Mad Money  CNBC  July 12, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm EDT

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r e. >> he would be lucky to take you to the dance. >> very lucky. >> he's not thrilled to hear this from number two, but if cbs sells off on the back of all of this noise and all of this craziness, i believe that cbs is a buy. >> i'm melissa lee, see you back here at 5 for more "fast money." don't go anywhere " mad money" with jim cramer starts right now. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to make you some money. my job isn't just to entertain but to educate and teach you call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. or tweet me @jimcramer everyday, kind of around the middle of the day, i look at what stocks are up the most. i try to get a feel for things,
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but when i look today i see where the dow gains 224 points and indeed pole vaulted 1.93%. no commonality at all. airlines gaming stocks, defense, healthcare, chip stocks, software, no unifying theme whatsoever that's when it dawned on me, the key to this amazingly bullish bounce back today, the markets' breadth was stunning, and across the board rally. how do we rap our heads around and get our heads around how we surge higher and it's an uncertain time to say the least. first, i know i'm in the minority when i say this, at least among professional commentators today's rebound was all about china blinking whether you like it or not or believe it or not the president just threatened to slap a new tariff on $200 billion worth off
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exports. what did the chinese do? nothing. no retaliation when that happens and stocks and american companies do stocks and start to rally, it emboldens investors. people don't want to be cross-wise with this one you don't want to find out mastercard or visa or american express have just been granted the right to expand in the republic i say, let a billion credit cards bloom! these stocks were up again yesterday. they're up today can we really be like the warden in "shawshank" and be this obtuse don't we have to conclude the market believes something is happening and the market could be right sure, we don't want to put too much emphasis from today's conciliatory rhetoric from treasury secretary, steve m, he told us the trade market was on
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hold both seems you got had if you took him too seriously the truth is if you want the white house to be less aggressive on trade, you need to hear this kind of rhetoric, not from steve but proposal president navarro. that's unlikely. you know what could happen, create a new bull market itself, 5% up. not a problem. what really matters, we know when the president is preoccupied with something, whether it be nato, we will have angry tweets about china we got some about germany but that's less damaging for our stock market the same goes for the president of the united states you can't short this market if china grants american express the right to sell credit cards without a joint venture partner. it would be magnificent gesture if mastercard gets a license it would be priceless. china says it has nothing to do
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with trade or save face. it wouldn't matter because actions speak a neshek of a lot louder than words. i think part of the possibility credit cards stock rance big the second day in a row. stocks ran big always stocks yesterday went right back up, as i said they would, it was as if, captain rano, from casablanca was the puppeteer. every one flew right back around to where it was before the president unveiled that budget tariff target of $200 billion. what else? a huge amount of money flowed into the cloud kings and semi-conductor stocks. ordinarily i believe there's no new money coming into this market except for index funds by wrote. how about when you get a spigot that opens in tech we got that today when broadcom changed its stripes. it announced it's buying a
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software business linked to mainframe hair mainframe hardware its stock plunged more than 13%. that's the opposite what investors expected from the ceo, hock tan, the guy who tried to buy qualcomm not that long ago we haven't seen a stock get crushed this hard since i slammed defense giant stark industries, when tony stark decided to get out of the armaments busy i mean,ca paw. sell sell sell sell sell i still get about a 7 cent royalty check every couple months all these people who sold broadcom had to put their money somewhere. it was almost like they flocked to every tech company to show their aversion to disemboweled
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call come. they cowl them the cloud kings and even i can't push that adobe, sales force, service now, splunk, work day, last night's guest, vm and red hat, quarter miss her they all soared beyond reason. they piled into the semi-s to what broadcom was until last night and in viddium, and who can resist, fang stretched out like that double aa, amazon and apple. all the so-called experts who keep running obituaries on this group, the stocks won't quit, at least with the exception of netflix. more in a minute the defense stocks got g.e. after stalling out yesterday, the irresistible notion the europeans may step up their military spending to placate president trump, the president in chief if an arms dealer orders half a dozen and the president would give them a favorite nation
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status and invite them to like nine holes a dozen gets your 18 holes an illustration, bash the price of drugs like the president did, money flows to tech and makes bracelets and surgical and alumina, high-tech medical equipment and with the popularity of video games, electronics and all burst higher yet again. grand theft video? no the call of duty to buy. there's microsoft, the unsung $800 billion gorilla no one even talks about as a stalking horse to the race to a trillion marking cap. do you ever hear any sing the praises of this one? quietly turning microsoft into azure and service hitter with linkedin no one seems to care except the endless buyers microsoft is a quiet multi-hundred billionaire of
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this market, just going about its business, no real sponsorship, again, hitting an all time high. on any given day there is a party pooper today, the best performing symptom of our era, netflix? because the proprietary evidence lab, ubs and csi, don't you love that raised its price target dramatically for the stock and also downgraded it for hold. and some people are bingingless on new sequels like "cage 2," i liked "cage 1. i have no idea how they did this but it could be a great call if there is a shortfall when netflix reports and then they can upgrade it to a buy. that's a mighty big if bottom line, this is a day the buyers could not be stopped. they knew the president was hanging with the queen, his newfound opponents, aka america's new allies, trying to
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find a way to apiece the guy and thinking he's over the top and couldn't resist buying just about everything except for the once loved now scorned broadcom. daniel in new jersey, daniel >> caller: hey, jim, how you doing? what an honor to be live with you on the air >> good to have you call in. what's going on? >> caller: not too much. i wanted to talk to you quick about blue apron we all know when it ipo'd, it was terrible timing with amazon acquiring whole foods and stuff and it hit a tremendous low at $1.99, where i bought a ton of it >> nice. >> caller: since then i'm already pretty much doubled up but i still think there's a lot of room for this company to grow >> yeah. here's what you're going to do, daniel tomorrow morning, you will take out all of your money you put in and forget about it and play with the house's money which is
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the most glorious situation imaginable bill in south carolina, bill >> caller: hey, jim, how are you? >> good, how are you >> caller: good, a little hot here but it is the summer. >> that's the thing about the south. >> caller: question about anadarko petroleum and resources and i know you have them in the action alerts plus portfolio, do you recommend either beginning a new position in eog or new position in -- >> i think you -- you don't need another oil name, just own anadarko, which announced a fantastic buy back this week and i like eog, too. richard in california, richard >> caller: hello, jim. >> yes >> caller: yo-yo, cramer, how you doing? >> chief, i'm good, what's happening? >> caller: i have two big franchise stocks one of them is coming up for the season that's kohl's. you gave me a good blessing last
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year and interest made a lot of money. i'm just wondering if you have good vibes on kohl's for this year >> i told members of the action plus come club on my call yesterday i felt kohl's could have some weakness it had a very big run, but after the weakness, goes down to the high 60s, those who haven't bought it, it's time the buyers couldn't be stopped today. this is about china blinking, people, and the president's new opponents changing their tune. on "mad money" tonight, think the market is too expensive? you're not alone i'm revealing the only way that can truly be the case. then, one overlook group impacted by a trade war between the u.s. and china and it could and perhaps should be in your portfolio. don't make a move before i reveal the second. a stock that quadrupled in the past year, you may not have even heard of it. i'll reveal it coming up stick with cramer!
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don't miss a seconds of "mad money. follow @jimcramer on twitter have a question, tweet cramer, #madtweets or e-mail at cnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc miss something head to us online.
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i keep hearing the same tale of woe even on days like today. the market is too expensive. the averages are dangerously elevated just you wait, you'll see how ugly this thing can get! we went up on nothing, we'll go down hard on everything. sure, i get the litany, blah blah blah. the more i think about certain calls, certain stocks, certain valuations, the more i recognize we have to stop relying so much on the idea of the market. the valuation for many stocks aren't that expensive. to put it another way, there's amazon, netflix, download a tape from ubs and you have discord
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among the analysts and then everybody else. the endlessly talked about tesla is what's going on here. notice i didn't say fine it's obscuring the valuations would be wrong 3 of 5 are fairly inexpensive when you look at it. easy to see how facebook could fall off a cliff and people were actually worried about privacy when they're seeking topromote themselves online. kind of oxymoronic when you think about it the media had a field day with this privacy stuff and probably not done having that field day when the tariff dominated the news correctly, the "new york times" harped on facebook being fined $660,000, the largest slapped on them. you could steal $660,000 from mark zuckerberg and he wouldn't even notice it's gone. facebook sells for 22 times next year's earnings estimate at the end of the day, that's all that matters the only thing the investigation has done is shrink the stock
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price, not the earnings. will people pay for those earnings, another way saying the stock is cheaper than it's supposed to be the same for alphabet. the opaque nature of the businesses aside from google makes the company hard to value. all we care about is how much it costs google to get clicks, not how lucrative it is across the board and why the stock trades at 26 times next year's earnings estimates. wait a second. maybe we should figure out what it sells for excludeing the $101 billion cash sheet, three times earnings apple sells at nearly 14 times fiscal year earnings that was fine when they were a cell phone story with pc and tablet now we all know about the subscription we pay money to every month like netflix and spotify and costco and amazon. that's one we will probably never kick 14 times apple is outrageously
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wrong given their $300 billion cash back out the cash and more than 10 times the earnings. not just fine. this morning, goldman sachs upgrades the stock trading 15 times next year's earnings, i was shocked. this is a premiere american company with the best balance sheet in the world amazing management j & j was ordered by a st. louis jury tonight to pay $550 billion in damages for women who said their talc product caused damages. for many, it might be too much to bear. it might not matter because of this enterprise. you see this what if they buy fox better story we're at a strange time. the vast majority of commentators seem to think the market is ridiculously expensive. to me, the only way the market is truly expensive, if you
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believe 2019 is going to be a nasty horrendous year, where there's a full stop to businesses alla a decade ago recession and they all have to be cut maybe that's where the disconnect really lies people who got burned in 2008 are conditioned to find the market expensive maybe they all assume the fed raises rates endlessly and crushes all stocks like when they did that going into the great recession. i think we should value the market as it is with a lot of cheap big cap stocks and some expensive ones when you do that, you don't need to fear the fed or the tape. it's a nice benign and, i think, lucrative way to look at things. let's go to paul in pennsylvania, please paul >> caller: yes, sir, i have a bunch of adp stock it's been doing very very well i want to know if it's time to get out of it because i'm afraid it may take a dump >> hey, adp is terrific.
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we're not going to get rid of that stock as a matter of fact, if there's any weakness, call me a buyer. i would do it less scatter logically. let's call it what it is there are a lot of cheap stocks and some expensive ones. that's that. there are some including some you may have overlooked in the trade war tie-up, taking a radical approach to treating mental health diseases, i think is a very profitable one utilities are picking up steam as of late and one is declining here what's behind that move? i'm talking to the ceo of the energy company, one of the top five in the country. ♪
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it just keeps escalating i told you to round up the usual suspects gets slammed rightly or wrongly every time tariffs are in the headlines for all the chatter you hear about the industrials getting slammed because of their chinese exposure, there's one often overlooked group very much in the crosshairs the big international casino stocks, wynn resorts and las vegas sands. and mgm. they have come down substantially from their highs maybe they deserve every penny of it. wynn has more to the chinese gambling than the united states. they spend fortunes building casinos. mgm has a slower presence over there. they just opened a property over there in february and that's a $4.4 billion casino. it would be the easiest thing in the world for the chinese
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communist party to wreck these gaming companies we talk about the government sponsored boycotts they wouldn't need to go that far. the casino business is heavily regulated. they can take away gaming license and impose restriction on american casinos. we're already seeing deregulation the gaming numbers, i found them disappointing in may and then disappointing in june. don't get me wrong i'm one of the few people who believes we can win this trade war and perhaps win it quickly the risk reward with the california oriented casino stocks has now become very much against you. wynn in las vegas gets more than half of the business in china and hostage to the good will of the chinese market the stock market has been getting killed there and chinese rollers have less money to burn at the casino. the potential for a bear case is worse than industrials, a lot worse than i thought even let's say a month ago.
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i think wynn and las vegas sands need to be treated as guilty until proven innocent. mgm is a much lesser one because of other interests mgm's main market is las vegas and vegas is in incredible shape. the stock is being dumped with sands every time there's a flare-up in china. i don't blame anyone who just lost their patience. i am circumvent winning lvs. while i hold mgm, only if you're willing to be patient. because i'm a johnny mercer kind of guy, accentuate the positive, let me put a positive spin on things global gaming may be too risky, totally economic players are on fire here. the only problem is unlike wynn or las vegas sands or mgm, they're not exactly household names why i want to circle back to you tonight to remind you of
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their existence. say hello to boyd gaming, penn national gaming, churchill downs and dici before i go into it, let me spell out the broader thesis the domestic gambling bull market boys down to two simple stories. vici we have a starter that can afford to burn a little money why we're seeing an uptick in gambling in places where it's legal. and on top of that the supreme court legalized it at the federal level and states have done that including new jersey you don't need to rethink this one. obviously, sports betting is big but elicit in most places. bookies take in $7.5 billion a year, i think a low ball number and see a third of it streaming out to legitimate.
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they have the existing infrastructure and seem toe have a head start on the casino operation. let's see the importance of legalized sports betting around the country to these companies boyd gaming and penn national, boyd owns 24 properties across seven states including a large presence in vegas and significant exposure to the midwest and deep south, think louisiana and mississippi. in vegas, this company made a name for itself catering to locals rather than tourists and they own three main stations they're all over the heartland from wichita, kansas city, to biloxi,mississippi boyd gaming is well-rounded company expanding its reach. i think it stands to be a huge winner from legalized sports betting. next up, penn national gambling, like boyd without the vegas exposure it is from florida to massachusetts to ontario
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and we learned pinnacle entertainment was being obtained for $2 billion a huge deal for a $3.3 billion company. even before the transaction, penn national was working hard to improve itself with a bunch of issues boosting the company's margins. put it all together, i think this is exactly the kind of stock that works in an environment where the u.s. economy is red hot everyone is concerned with world trade. third, churchill downs, right? they host the kentucky derby they are in reality more of diversified gaming business, own three rescues, calder park in illinois and two others. they have a casino business with nine properties in eight states. mississippi, maine, florida, ohio, new york, colorado and maryland, third, churchill downs has an online line betting division, twin spires.com as well as a horse researching business you want a way to play on
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legalized sports betting harder to think of a better way than a company that owns horse tracks they caught fire after a blowout in april it was beautiful i think it has more upside finally, let me give youeers way to approach this vici properties. this is a real estate investment trust spun off her sage assets and ceasar's mainly hotels and casinos and golf courses we just speak to the ceo, ed pitoniak, p-i-t-o-n-i-a-k, the end of may he told a good story the stock gave us an 8% gain since that interview, think of it as an arms length play since the interview, it's a 5% yield, i think is terrific. the big international stocks have been -- casino -- have been selling off. we have boyd gaming, penn national and churchill downs are best of breed, vici gives you a
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nice reaped alternative. let's go to judy in new york judy >> caller: hi, jim, how are you? >> good, how are you >> caller: thank you i used to work for starwood hotels, so i have an interest in marriott they announced yesterday a deal with alla baba for facial recognition at check-in? should i pack my bags? will it have a positive impact on the stock >> no. the stock is down 4% on the year, a highly well run company. i think they have done a remarkable job i will tell you to buy some more. >> for the love of the game. domestic casino stocks doing fabulously, stick to those and get a little more cautious about the international ones much more on patients suffering
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from mental health illnesses that feel better within days totally novel. you don't want to miss this one. then, with utilities making a major comeback after spending so long in the doghouse, i will sit down with a major player in this space to see what's ahead and then rapid fire with tonight's edition of the "lightening round" stick with cramer! at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your healthcare business. so that if she has a heart problem & the staff needs to know, they will & they'll drop everything can you take a look at her vitals? & share the data with other specialists yeah, i'm looking at them now. & they'll drop everything hey. & take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. & that one too. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &.
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what do you do when a once red hot bio-stock starts to cool off a little bit sage it's for treating central nervous disorders, clinical depression here's a stock that's been a huge winner. last year saw it triple. and gained in a single session last december when it got very positive data on its depression medicine novel. only up slightly, better than down but down 30 points from its january highs. still, like this story sage tries to develop novel drugs that focus on gaps in the
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treatment and typical run of antidepressants. they're also testing this on parkinson's sleep disorders and postpartum injection is currently waiting for approval which means it could come in the first half of next year. is the stock taking a breather let's talk to dr. jeff jones, the ceo of sage therapeutics welcome to "mad money. great to see you, dock let me ask you something say something is wrong with your liver. wow, got a liver problem something is wrong with your kidney kidney problem what happens if you say you're depressed? >> you know, it's a great question, jim. again, thanks for having me today. we're really dedicated to thinking differently about depression and make people think about depression like a disease and disorder, not a lifestyle. people with depression are very ill. people with postpartum are very ill. they deserve the same type of
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their pu ti their -- therapeutic interventions someone with a broken leg or ill might need >> and at times of people with suicide taking their lives by their own hand often because of what you're trying to address. >> depression is a leading cause of suicide and one of the leading areas of unmet medical need and leading cause of workplace morbidity. our current therapeutic options have been in place almost two decades and a positive innovation and real reluctance to think differently how we might treat these patients more urgently and more effectively. >> when i did get to interview you, postpartum depression, i was shocked to know, there's really nothing you've got something that could be very close. >> we're really excited about this this is in intravenus treatment. you're talking 400,000 plus women in the u.s. alone who get this diagnosis, one of the
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leading causes of maternal death after childbirth no leading help. we have a 70% remission rate after 2 1/2 days of treatment. >> that's staggering what would it be if people had nothing? what do they tell people, take aspirin? what do they have. >> they have re-up take inhibitors and you get on that drug 6-8 weeks and maybe on it chronically. in the u.s. alone, 25 million people are chronically on antidepressant therapy alone the idea to get a rapid robust response the idea if you can get better in 2 1/2 days, if we can achieve that, why would you wait 6-8 weeks. >> i would pay anything for that so to speak. but the federal government doesn't anymore. how do we teach the federal government a short course that seems like it's high priced is less expensive than long courses
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that don't do as well. >> we have to change the way people think about depression. right now, people almost view depression like a lifestyle. we want to make it a treatable disorder >> i know. >> we're in discussion with payers obviously the value proposition is getting people better in 2 1/2 days. imagine if you had a broken leg, someone said, go home, maybe in eight weeks you'll be better, if not we can get you better in 2 1/2 days that's the kind of argument we have to make with payers and physicians we're changing a business model the way doctors think about depression from a chronic disorder to a treatable disorder get the treatment and stop it when you're better >> i want you to tell them a little how you approach this it was also novel versus a lot of executives we have on >> no one believed this when we started. that's when you challenge conventional wisdom and frankly that's the fun of biotech. we can take a chance and do
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something different for patients our approach is to change the way we think about depression. we have a molecule and mechanism that calms the brain down, a different theory of depression the brain is not a tumor, a complex neural circuitry you can't biopsy to find out what's going on. you have to treat people we decided if we could calm the brain down there might be an opportunity to reset the way the brain is working, almost like a reboot that was our theory and turns out we've done four studies controlled, one with intravenous and oral and we've seen that kind of rapid response and been reproduceble and that gives us confidence we can make that. >> we are talking about major depressive disorder, parkinson's, bipolar, gigantic unmet needs. >> biotech, we have big visions. the team has done a great job embracing this do big approach one of the things that stage is,
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not a one shot wonder or two shot wonder, we have different molecules. the street is focused on depression and postpartum. we have programs for possibly parkinson's and tremors and insomnia and adhd and alzheimer's. >> be careful with alzheimer's, you once told me it's terribly hard to crack. >> we may have an approach that's different we have a molecule called 718 in early stage testing. still early days, we think there may be an approach in cognition in parkinson's, alzheimer's and adhd even. >> it's the approach the doctor is taking that i think this is such a fabulous investment these drugs that are coming, they're just proof of your view of life, not just medicine, life that's dr. jeff jones, ceo of sage therapeutics. he's different the stock is a buy
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"lightening round" is sponsored by td ameritrade it is time
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time for the "lightening round." then the "lightening round" is over are you ready, skee-daddy! start with curtis in north carolina, curtis >> caller: hello, captain jim, thanks for taking the call today. we appreciate you out here in cramerica, jim >> you're very kind. thank you. >> caller: jim, i'm calling today about next year energy, formerly florida power and light corporation, pioneers in green energy and offer an adequate dividend and yield >> this is one of our favorites, an aggressive grower as to yield. a really good call to craig in new york craig! >> caller: first of all, thank you for yesterday's numbers only call thank you very much. >> caller: my stock is cigna, ci >> when dave came on the stock
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was around here and it deserved to be much higher, doing an acquisition, the stock is undervalued. may i go to tom in ohio, tom >> caller: hello, jim, thanks for taking my call >> okay. >> caller: with the rising demand in lithium and many players, i took a position with sqm and wanted your take on it. >> besides that it is not an expensive stock if lithium takes off. it is not taking off so i have to tell you i may be on the other side of the trade. to tyler >> caller: booyah, tyler from ohio, here >> all right, tyler. >> caller: my brother and in bought my dad stock for wwe for father's day and wonder if it's a buy or sold. >> i think it is a buy sellers introduced it to us and they have a fantastic subscription model we love subscription models on
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"mad money." to stan in maryland. stan >> caller: good evening, jim thank you velsry much for taking my call. i own rcs, land research corporation for about a half a year now,unfortunately, it's in the red. >> remember, on the conference call, they were not that bullish and talked about the second half not being that great the stock has come down a great deal, yields 2.5%. at 3%, say we have to buy. the semi-equipment stocks are not the right place to be at this point in the cycle. to matt in maine, matt >> caller: cramer. >> matt! >> what's going on >> caller: what will we do with skechers, man? >> down 18%, sells 14 times earnings in the buy-sell-hold category, i will put it in the hold category let's go to sunny in -- ohio
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sunny. >> caller: good evening, sir, i'm wondering what are your thoughts on wst, western pharmaceutical services. thank you for taking my call >> i have always thought this drug delivery doesn't really interest me. i would buy j. & j. on any week to get news stories tonight. that would be a better opportunity. i need to go to shakur in new jersey >> caller: i'm a long time caller first time listener i want to get -- >> software for storage, i have to tell you, they're not directly applicable. software defined storage is -- we are cloud kings here! and that's the conclusion of the "lightening round" the "lightening round" is sponsored by td ameritrade eh, it t feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman?
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lately utilities are making a major comeback after spending a long time in the doghouse after interest rates cooled off a bit diminishing the bond market competition one utility stock had the opposite journey higher earlier this year only to sell off in june talking about texas energy that acquired dynasty earlier this year picking up major regional assets in the northeast.
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it's why it performed so well earlier this year. the stock up 26% for 2018. that made this company the lowest cost integrated power company in america when utilities came back a few weeks ago investors decided to flock to the beaten down names rather than winners. it seems to have stalled out what are we supposed to do with this unusual utility the analyst last month i think told a pretty good story but doesn't seem to have helped for now. let's look at the president and ceo of vistra energy welcome back to "mad money." >> hey, jim. glad to be back. thank you for having me. >> curt, before we get started, people may not have heard of vistra energy but you are one of the largest utilities in our entire country >> that's correct. we have about 41,000 of megawatts of generation, 3
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million customers across the u.s. in the major regions of texas and area in the mid-continent, in the mid-atlantic and up into the northeast. we are, i think, probably the largest integrated power company right now in the country >> you got a broad set of assets could you give us an overview, particularly say in texas where you have -- is there a manufacturing renaissance, like i see where you have big industrial companies burning up a lot of energy from you >> in texas we have about 2% growth in power, about double what the national average is, probably more than double the national average if you come to any of the major cities, dallas, houston and austin, as well as san antonio, you see a lot of construction and distribution centers the demand growth has been significant. i think you know we have 1. -- essentially 1.7 million
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customers in texas, and we have the most well-known brand called txu energy it's a really great business for us generating about $800 million of ebitda, about $21 million of capital to sustain that. it drops down to a substantial amount of ebitda to free cash flow, which is huge for our company. snow that means you have a chance to do acquisitions, what i want because i know you have low cost power or conceivably one day you could pay a good dividend the way many viewers like that regular stream of income >> yeah. i think one of the big things about us because we generate about $3 billion ebitda and we drop about 6% of that to free cash flow, that's a lot of cash for a company of our size. we think a dividend is in the future of the company. the question for us really is whether it's in '19 or 2020. we have enough cash flow to be
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able to do that. we think it's the right thing. we're a value play and we're going to distribute value back to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buy bank of americas but we will also be able -- buybacks and we're focused mainly on the retail side of our business for growth. >> you're also a forward thinking company i want you to talk about the 300 mega watt battery storage project in california. that seems like the way tov the future >> it is california is way ahead of everybody else in terms of where they want to take their power business in california what's interesting about california now, they have so much solar, jim, that they have too much power during the day, during the peak period and they're having to back off conventional generation in order to allow the solar to come in. their problem is the reverse of everybody else when the sun goes down, they need resources to come on.
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that's why they like this big battery installation because it can come on instantaneous when the sun goes down and can continue to produce power during the peak periods we have a site about an hour and a half south of san francisco that is ideal for this battery installation it will make it, like you said, the largest in the world and it's going to be quite an opportunity for this company and will put us in a leadership role >> i want to go back to something you called low cost power. you are in some very competitive place, places i know you're up against very entrenched competitors. how are you able to wean your new customers away from -- basically say, that's what i will use, it's what my parents used and what i use. i know that's a very big obstacle to growing the way i'd like you to grow >> it is difficult i think what you have to do is you have to develop a brand with
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a promise, but you also have to be able to be cost competitive where we start is, is with our generation our generation is the lowest cost fleet what's important for us is to be able to produce that product and be able to put together the kind of products and services that is necessary for customers. if we can do that and have a very competitive product offering, we can build our business and grow it over time that's what we plan to do. >> how do you tell people -- for instance, let's say i get something in the mail and i live in new jersey that says you can get me a lower rate, maybe you should switch. i'm trying to figure out how do i discern the value proposition? >> i think that's what it is you have to use social media, also direct mail type and direct marketing, and you have to convince a customer that your proposition is better than the
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one they have. most of the time on the front end, to be quite honest with you, jim, you have to offer them something. there's a cost to acquisition of a customer in many markets 100, $150 you have to put into marketing, but also maybe give them a lower cost product to woo them away. then, if you can provide them very good service and they get comfortable with you, you can keep them for the long run there is a cost for acquisition to customers it's lower, by the way, to build it organically than it is to try to buy a company already in it sn >> fascinating i like your utilities. president and ceo of vista back after the break
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i think tomorrow will be day two of defense stock rally like i said, there's always a bull market somewhere, i promise to fine it just for you here at "mad money." i'm jim cramer and i will see you tomorrow
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narrator: in this episode of "american greed," in alaska, mark avery is blowing through a fortune in record speed. how often do you see somebody spending $53 million in six months? narrator: he is grabbing up expensive toys -- motor homes, a yacht, even snowmobiles. skrocki: that's what everybody in alaska wants to have, but not all of it at once. [ gunshots ] narrator: and while alaskans like their guns, avery appears to be outfitting his own private army. mooradian: it was wall-to-wall guns and hand grenades and everything you could think of. narrator: and then, suddenly, his army becomes an air force. he buys six helicopters, eight former soviet fighter jets,

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