r&r, repair and remodel, in general has been flat. for us it starts with a pretty strong focus on the customer and a strong focus on converting our products, timber tech decking and azek trim, from wood, which is the predominant market in our types of products, launching new products and then using that to expand our shelf position in the marketplace. so we've got a formula that we've been focused on executing over the last few years that we believe between the things i just listed gives us an opportunity to at least grow 5 to 7% over the marketplace. >> that's amazing. i'm not hearing you say if the fed cuts this, if this happens, it just seems to be that you are in more control of your destiny than anyone in the segment that you play in. >> yeah. it's really important when people say, you know, we control what we can control. we believe growth is something that should be part of that equation. as part of that, we know the product we have. we know the market opportunity that's out there. we know where we can expand with customers and we are laser focused on continuing to grow our business through the timber tech brand in particular which grew 18% last year in a flat market. >> one of the things be that i find unusual about -- one of the many things unusual about your company is that you have premium value, and i say that because you're not the cheapest but people recognize that there is a tremendous value proposition with going with the best. >> yeah. absolutely. so if you start in our types of products, and just as a reminder, this is kind of an odd thing to show but i'll show it to you, we take recycled materials, this happens to be a record album and credit card punches and we put those into things like decking, rail, siding and trim. as you point out, that's a premium value proposition, which means we give people better aesthetics, we give people long life and low maintenance. so value for us is really value to the customer. having said that, we continue to expand the product portfolio to meet more and more price points, which is also important in this type of a market. so always adding more value but doing it across multiple price points. >> now you are a serial buyer of your stock, which is what we want because it returns value. but you're also building plants. you guys are unstoppable in terms of your capital expenditures. the ability to be up. you have to meet demand. you are beating demand and buying back stock. >> correct. last year was a good capital deployment year for us. we retired a portion of our debt. we bought back an additional few points of stock and we invested 5 to 7% of our revenue in both -- in growth and margin expansion. and it's important for us that we do that selectively. in this addition, we bought a couple of tuck in acquisitions. we bought a recycler and a rail company. these are relatively low investments that we're able to add value to that ultimately gives value to our customers. >> i was at lowe's yesterday talking to marvin ellison and we were trying to figure out, frankly, what is -- what does a customer really want? who is the customer? for instance, when i switched to azek, i did it not because of you because i didn't know it was you, it was because my contractor told me i had to use azek. later on i said i knew you, that's interesting, because that's who i recommend. is it the contractor or is it the person? >> in our case, it's both. it's really important to engage a consumer so that they recognize that, you know, they're buying a really premium product that gives them the right visual and the great performance, but it's also really important, there's tens of thousands if not 100,000 contractors out there. each and every one of them is a small business. they have their own credibility to manage and it's really important that we take care of them. for them, we market to the consumer but we have a very large sales force that is focused on training and helping our contractors to run their business and giving them the right tools to help a consumer. >> you do haved of a varied audience. i have the good for tune to have a beach house. my daughter said dad you keep using the wood, costing a fortune. i looked into it and found this out but didn't know i know you. why did she want to use you? she is sensitive to the environment. now is this younger generation, do you pitch them that first? i know you're a replacement for wood. there are a lot of people who say thank heavens they're using this getting it out of the landfill. >> environmentally by using very high percentage of recycled, we're more environmentally sustainable than wood. i would say it varies by segment. in the diy segment it's important that we offer the right price points and the right accessibility. in the more premium segments we continue to offer a really premium value proposition and in the millennial segment, it's important that we market both, that we market sustainability but also long lasting and have the right kind of value propositions. >> when you took this job from 3m did you know this was a growth company or did you turn it into a growth company? >> coming in, the market -- you love coming into a market where the vast majority of the market, in my case when i started, 85% is an interior material, which in our case was wood. so you look at it. we had, you know, a strong technology base that required some investment, some nurturing, brand building and expansion of new products. and when you start with a base like that, you assume that there's a growth business underneath that. and i'm really proud of what the team's been able to accomplish in driving the timber tech brand, driving the azek brand to add value for our consumers. >> you've made a lot of money for people and an inspiration and i think kind of the textbook of what a company and a ceo can do to make it you have great growth in an industry, frankly, where there is very little growth. congratulations. >> thank you, jim. >> i didn't mean to do a commercial for it. i happen to be a big user of it. "mad money" is back after the break. >> announcer: coming up, service titans soared in its first day of trading yesterday. does the successful debut signal more in the year. cramer is covering the newly public company next. it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog. made by vets and delivered right to your door precisely portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. ♪♪ i didn't do this for the fame. i did it to pay it forward to the next generation of athletes. ♪♪ i joined sofi because they've helped millions of members bank, borrow, and invest for their ambitions. sofi. get your money right. to go further, you need to be ready for what's down the road. as energy demand continues to rise, we're harnessing breakthrough innovations to increase production in the u.s. gulf of mexico. our latest deepwater development, anchor, produces previously inaccessible oil and natural gas, allowing us to deliver the energy we all need today so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress. >>> yesterday we got one last major ipo before the holidays when servicetitan came public. this is a technology platform for trades people. makes life much easier for a lot of small businesses came public. it was supposed to be priced between 52 and 57. there was so much demand they raised the range before ultimately pricing it at 71. it opened 30 bucks at 101. i am hesitant to recommend servicetitan because now it's expensive. i want to walk you through what happened. this is exactly the kind of deal we need in order to get privately held operations to think about coming public again. first, servicetitan has a terrific back story. they were armenian immigrants and they struggled with all of the tedious back office minutia so they created a platform to help them handle the paperwork. they were on "squawk box" yesterday. here's how they explained it. the. >> we think of it as a business in a box. if you were running a contract being business, you need a tool to manage your advertising online, your call center, dispatching, scheduling, payroll, everything in the back office. our solution is a perfectly tailored suit made specifically for contracting businesses that does everything end to end. >> though it was built with small family run businesses in m mind, servicetitan's platform has become so robust even much larger professional contractors use it. more than $1 billion in annual gross transaction volume. servicetitan makes the volume of its revenue from subscription revenue including from transactions that use their payment solution. you pay up for higher end functionality if you need it. i think they have found a great niche. servicetitan put up great numbers. they grew it 24% clip in the first six months the current fiscal year and they expect similar growth in the latest quarter which ended in october. because this is a software as a service business, that revenue is very sticky. very consistent. how about profitability? in the first six months of the current fiscal year service titan's gross margin expanded 76 to 66%. their adjusted margin came in up negative 5%. servicetitan doesn't pass the rule of 40 test. this is how wall street grades cloud software plays, many of which are not profitable. you add the growth rate to the operating margin and be if the result's under 40, the conventional wisdom says you steer clear. looking at the first half service titans 29, below 40. overall, i think this company is trending in the right direction. when these software as a service company turns profitable, they are terrific investments. with some back of the envelope valuation, they are up 12 times this year's sales. is that appropriate? a few years ago they were instantly traded and even 50 times sales but then the fed started tightening. those stocks collapsed. they cost you a lot of money. as for right now, it's a bit more expensive than salesforce. yesterday during this "squawk box" interview they listed a number of comparisons, viva systems, toast, shopify, app folio. compared to the service titans valuations, take out folio which makes cloud based property based software for landlords. that's a good comp. it has roughly the same price. i would say servicetitan's valuation is rich but not unreasonable. at the end of the day i like the story very much, but as for the stock, i would like it a little bit lower. i don't want to pound the table on a software company that doesn't pass this rule of 40 test, especially when the valuation feels a little stretched to me. service titan is certainly worth buying somewhere. ten times sales meaning you have my blessing to buy this one hand over fist if it comes back down to the mid 80s. for me, what's good about the service titan ipo is how it was received on wall street. last week i mentioned reddit on fire. we've had far fewer deals than the pre-covid trump years 2017 through 2019. that's not good. not good for corporate america or for you. there have been very few tech ipos. largely because they can raise more money than ever in private markets. often at higher valuations than they get in the stock market. that is exactly what happened with servicetitan. their last four private fundraising rounds were done at much higher prices than where this came public. it is $7 million per share. they got anywhere from $84 and change to nearly 119. now that is a humbling thing to do, isn't it, to seven accept t your company might not be worth what venture capitalists said. the last private fundraising round was 185, now it's $180 stock. i want to say something you on't normally hear. i want to praise servicetitan's investment bankers, including the team at goldman sachs. they priced this deal perfectly. they priced it high enough that their client, servicetitan, was able to raise plenty of money but low enough so that their other clients, the money managers that participated in the offering, made a lot of money. that means they will likely be back to get the next big deal. which brings me to the bottom line. i'm hopeful this successful servicetitan deal will encourage more venture capital tech companies to go public next year. the water is fine. anthony? >> caller: i am good. >> how about you? >> caller: good. calling about this dog with fleas. smti, super microcomputers inc. most were at buy or hold and now i'm down 56% and i'm just wondering what's going on with management and what do you recommend? should i ditch it and go somewhere else and hold it? >> well, i know bloomberg this evening did say that they brought in evercore to help the company raise capital. when you see that, that's both good and bad. good they are going to raise money, bad that they even needed the money. i have a strict rule on the show. accounting irregularities equals sell. they've had accounting regularities. i never deviate. i say sell. let's go to andrew in new york. andrew? >> caller: hey, jim. how are you? >> i'm good. how about you? >> caller: i'm good. i'm good. i have a question about sound high. 24% up. i bought this at 6 did go. >> this is a cold stock. short squeeze. no reason why it's where it is. i'm not saying that, therefore, it's the end, i'm not saying to short it, i'm not saying it can't go to 40, i'm not saying it can go to 4. it's a cold stock therefore i have very little value when you ask me about it because i cannot opine on a company that is in the stratosphere because of a short squeeze and a lot of excitement driven by people who don't know how the stock market works and if they don't get out will lose a lot of money. i like the stock of servicetitan which is the opposite of soundhound but i'd like it a lot more at a lower level. i'm very bullish of what's to come. much more "mad money" including my read on where microsoft stands in the securities space after yet another high profile cyber attack. plus after trump's historic visit to the trading floor, i'm running through my key points with the president-elect. and tonight's edition of lightning round so stay with cramer. is it me... or is work not working? 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[alarm beep] you make it through security so fast, ♪♪ the agents applaud. your travel itineraries are so well written, they're on the best seller list. and you have access to lounges that don't officially exist. that's why you rent with national, where you can skip the counter and choose any vehicle on the emerald aisle. because travel isn't a competition. except that it is. and you're winning. gina costa... looking simply stunning... what's this? she's opening her fidelity app.... to buy that stock... with no fees or commissions... because what does gina got? gina's got the look. that never gets old. talk about easier investing. >>> on "mad money" we spend a great deal of time focusing on cybersecurity because businesses can't afford not to invest heavily to protect themselves. while it flies under the ray gaurs it's part of a much larger operation, microsoft is the heavy hitter in cybersecurity with a bird's eye view of the industry. it's another reason why we own the stock in my travel trust and have forever. let's take a closer look with the corporate vice president of microsoft security to learn more. welcome back to "mad money." >> thank you so much. so great to be here with you, jim. >> i don't know if people realize, but you guys put out i think the most informed briefings for someone like me, for anyone in his country, to know where we are. i read it. i feel great about what you're doing. i feel badly that things have gotten even worse from when i saw you last. but you guys were saying only 579 passwords per secretary. now it's 7,000? >> yeah. first of all, thank you for the acknowledgment. in today's age of ai, security must come first because as you said, last year when i was here with you we received 4,000 attacks per second. today it's 7,000 per second and what makes it even worse is if you look at the defender side and the gap. we have a talent shortage of 4.8 million jobs today. it's become really easy for anyone to become an attacker, ransomware, nation state, all over. really hard to become a defender. as we look at ai and the potential that ai brings, we have to use ai for defense. that's why this is about how do we bring the industry together? how do we apply our best security for microsoft and for all? how do we advance innovations so that we can bring this comprehensive security? >> nearly everybody uses microsoft. i am going to go into some of the larger companies, but i find them going after now companies with ten people, five people and shutting the company down. what do you advise to those people? >> yeah. you know, it's so easy to say, hey, this is not going to happen to me. we always think about cybersecurity as a big enterprise or government issue, but reality is it starts with phishing and scams. they're all around us. cyber crime, jim, is costing us trillions of dollars every single year. imagine what we could do before we put that back into the company. my advice is be cyber vigilant. everyone is vulnerable to attacks. all our companies need to make sure we're doing all we can to do security. security is a cultural transformation as much as it's a technology transformation. secure initiative is about culture. would he have mobilized the equivalent of 34,000 engineers, probably the largest cybersecurity movement if not industry and what we are doing is we are making security important for every single employee. as consumers, employees, when we are aware of security, when we use the best tools, when we are vigilant we are ahead of the attackers. >> about ten yards from here was president trump yesterday. would you have said that to him and then how would you say that -- should we play offense? is there a way of doing something differently from the current administration? >> so, we have always partnered with every administration to advance cybersecurity as well as ai and i look forward to working with the incoming administration on that. what i would say is in this age of ai, cybersecurity needs to come above all else. it needs to be our top priority. we need to take a look at the investments, the cooperation, collaboration, accountability because cybersecurity, i've shared with you before, is a team sport. every single organization, every public sector, we all need to partner. there's a lot we have to do. >> i'm glad you say that. we had george kirk on the day of his horrific attack. it was not, by the way, a breach, it was a glitch. i understand he just said, look, your boss -- he sat down and said, let's figure this out together. >> totally. >> we are getting to the point where people are no longer spitballing. >> totally. hey, let's come together. that crowdstrike incident is a great example. what we did is what we should do, we leaned in, put our customers first, helped them recover. we stepped back. we worked with all the ecosystems on what can we do to better protect? it was such a great lesson in resiliency for us. like we've got to think of resiliency. and i'm really happy with the progress and how we are protecting end to end. this is one of the reasons microsoft is building out a platform. one of the coolest innovations, you're going to love this, is what we call exposure management because it helps defenders now look at an organization in a digital estate the way an attacker would look. that is going to be game changing. imagine that with ai for security. so i'm excited. i'm excited about the progress we are making with all of the ecosystem, and that was a great example of why we need to work together. >> i was so thrilled everybody got together. i like both sides so it's difficult. charlie sharp, wells fargo, he said that cyber is by far the biggest risk that we all face and he's saying he wakes up at night thinking is he spending enough money, are we doing everything we possibly can? are businesses doing everything they possibly can? or are people trying to say, you know what, don't worry, it will be fine? >> well, we should worry. cybersecurity is a continuous improvement game. it's a cat and mouse game. the attackers are getting smarter, defenders have to stay ahead. there are three things we should look at as we move forward. the first one is how do we use ai fordefor defense? there's a lot in this. co-pilot for security is a great example where it helps defenders. in fact, one stat which i think you're going to love, is it's helping people who don't really know cybersecurity get faster and better. 26% faster, 35% more accurate. viola. the second thing i would say is as we build ai and as organizations start using ai, 90% plus organizations are using some form of generative ai. let's make sure they're securing and governing that ai. that's a very important thing. we're using technologies for that. third, remember, security takes all. it's a team sport. so think about the ecosystem. think about what we need. think about comprehensive protection. those are the three things. we have to be vigilant, we have to move from defense to prevention and proactive security. i think that's what we need to do. yes, we have to make it priority number one. >> but i would say, in full disclosure i showed you something that i got that i thought looked real. they're so good now. >> yes. >> come on, is this what they're sending dear beloveds. now they look exactly like what i would expect. what's your advice to working people out there who say, i can't tell the difference? is. >> it is really hard. we looked at that text just a few minutes back. so i would say every time you see something suspicious, well, is this right? don't click on that link. do not click. do your research. ask someone and i think all companies have an obligation to make sure they're following the right processes and the right procedures so we can educate the employees and consumers. cybersecurity is going to be critical because you took a pause before clicking on that, that's what we need to do. >> well, look, i think you are a calming voice in an otherwise hysterical world of cyber terrorism. not that you aren't out there to get the bad guys. this is the corporate vice president of microsoft security. i always want to bring these people to you because it's so important. i did like it when microsoft and crowdstrike got together. "mad money" will be right back. >>> coming up, cramer takes your calls and the sky's the limit. it's a fast fire lightning round next. sponsored by charles schwab. trade brilliantly. >>> it is time. it's time for the lightning round. buy buy buy, sell sell sell. and then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy. time for the lightning round. start with kenny in new jersey. kenny. >> caller: kenny. thank you, jim, for taking my call. kenny in new jersey. your man. you're coming down to see me down here. >> i'm going to cherry hill. i'm going to cherry hill tomorrow from 12 to 3 to sign some bows at total wine. see you at cherry hill. >> caller: there you go. i'm there. what do you think of ibm, jim? is it. >> i like ibm. it's still an inexpensive stock. it's a little more episodic than i like. 22 times earnings i am on board. let's go to sal in new york. sal. >> caller: jim, what's up? how are you? >> i am good. how about you, partner? >> caller: very good, sir. all right. i've got a small tech company. you had the ceo on a couple of times. it's been through a challenging period no doubt. the small cap company has managed to build a 7.1 strategic backlog and top oems. the ceo projects a return to significant growth in 2025. over 700 million in revenue by 2028. what do you think about indy semiconductors. >> i think he may be a tad too bullish because the auto business is really much worse than people realize. i'm going to have to take a pause on that one. you made a nice preach for it. i can't go there. frank in new york. frank. >> caller: hey, jim. hey, great work yesterday with the president-elect. >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. >> caller: listen, i'm asking about alcoa aluminum. >> here's the problem with alcoa. in the end it's a materials stock and they're linked with china. nobody wants them. i have to go with the crowd and say not now. let's go to jim in new york. jim. >> caller: jimmy, question for you. dvm. >> i don't know. rick moncrief just left it. it's at a 52-week low. at 33. expect oil to go down 30 bucks. i say start buying stuff. i always put it in the bullpen today for my travel trust in preparation for next wednesday's meeting. i'm holding off now because oil is so weak. let's go to alma. >> caller: hi, jim. >> yo, what's going on? >> caller: long-time listener. you've helped me out so much. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> caller: i just joined the club. >> yes. i'll see you at wednesday's meeting, 12:00. i'll tell jeff you're going to be there. the. >> caller: i'll be there. be there or be square, right? >> absolutely. >> caller: i wanted to ask you about paychex. doesn't seem like it's doing a whole lot. >> paychex reports next week. this is on hold. if the fed stops cutting rates or says, listen, we can't cut any time soon, the stock is going to fall. let's wait to see. it yields 2.7%. i like to buy the stock at 3%. that's been the right thing to do. let's employ that strategy. i need to go to nicolas in florida. nicolas. >> caller: boo-yah. what's going on, big daddy. >> i don't know. you tell me. what's shaking? >> caller: nothing much. just wanted to get your opinion on dollar general. >> dollar general yields 3%. i like my dollar general. near quaker town. here's the problem. there's another company called walmart. they are crushing it. the buy walmart even though they're at the high. >> caller:. >> this high performance computing, i think about a stock that everybody suddenly hates again and that's the stock of nvidia. i'm not backing away from nvidia. been very good to my travel trust and everybody else in the world. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by charles schwab. coming up, what could the new administration mean for stocks, crypto and the market's direction over the next four years? cramer shares his take aways from yesterday's conversation with the president-elect next. >>> hey, still getting a lot of good feedback from my interview with president-elect donald trump yesterday. thank you. i want to share the most important morse sells with you. the biggest take away was from trump's statements about china. he has a good relationship with president xi and china has not been a good actor and it can't stay that way. this is so important in so many different ways. we need to protect taiwan in order to protect taiwan semiconductor. at the same time we need to figure out how to turn china from a full-time adversary into a worthy trading party. i don't know what one country can do but let me tell you what i think can happen. i believe president xi needs the u.s. much more than people realize. the chinese is deeply indebted. the good faith of our country and he is loses the good faith of his people with his old school malaise leadership style. something has to give. i think trump is in a deal making mode. president xi, you can deal with me ordeal with peter navarro, maybe the biggest china hawk in the country. it just might work. like ronald regan with the soviet union, trump will have to trust but verify. could this be like when nixon kwent to china? i think the president-elect wants to be thought of someone who can change things for the better and putting our relationship with china on an even keel will be a bood step. he had no bluster when it came to the stock market. it's not worth it to link your performance to such a fickle beast as the averages. the president-elect's affinity for crypto will give the dollar a strange bed fellow. i believe the dollar can cooperate with crypto as it's cooperated with gold. i want washington to get it under control. i heard from people all sides on the equation who liked that there was an up beat tone, lack of rancor and sense of forgiveness. it was like trump had too much to be consumed by the past, he's got too much to do. people don't want to dwell on what went wrong in the past, they're laser focused on making the future better. less adversarial. a lot of people on the floor of the exchange seemed to think nothing could be better than a pro business conciliatory president. i can see why people want to believe in the a nool ring back then was the beginning of a multi-year decade. in the end, all of those turned out to be buying opportunities. i want to believe the white house's attitude towards business is in going up on stocks. what's more important is profits. so it certainly doesn't hurt that trump talked about wanting to cut corporate taxes once again to let more money fall to you. love him or hate him, you've got to admit that's the business. i'm jim cramer, see you monday. lies an american success story. i call it the nvidia of states. a magnetic mountain town where population is on the rise and tourists stream in by the millions. i think there is more growth to come. also on the rise here -- big business. salt lake has been a home run for goldman sachs. plus an exploding tech hub pushing wages to new heights. now there are a thousand companies within the silicon slopes ecosystem. all of it turning salt lake city into one of the hottest job markets in america. this is a number one state to do busines