Boring Stocks, Big Results

Sometimes we make the game too hard. Take a couple of stocks that reported today: Rite Aid and General Mills (GIS - commentary - Cramer's Take).

Both companies had been saying things are good. Both companies have been on "Mad Money" telling you that the public and the Street -- the analysts -- are too negative, too skeptical. Both companies have been delivering for years, whether through innovation and advertising, as is the case with General Mills, or with store remodeling and aggressive mergers, as is the case with Rite Aid.

Yet nobody really pays attention until earnings days.

That's a shame, because the best moves are made intraquarter with these stocks, not on the quarter.

When people look at 2006 and how hedge funds have done -- and they've largely disappointed -- they should think of these two "buy 'em, monitor 'em, stay long 'em" holdings and recognize that these "misses" -- as I am sure Rite Aid and General Mills are too "boring" for hedge funds -- were where the real performance was.

Random musings: Accenture's (ACN - commentary - Cramer's Take) becoming an unbelievably consistent performer. I still like it here. ... Textron's (TXT - commentary - Cramer's Take) aircraft biz is worth a lot more if Goldman Sachs is buying Raytheon's. ... Honeywell (HON - commentary - Cramer's Take) won't quit after that dividend boost. ... The New York Times dismisses the GE (GE - commentary - Cramer's Take) dividend boost as more of the same. How can they make that mistake? This was a much bigger increase than we have gotten in five years! That was the catalyst. ... Yes, Syneron Med (ELOS - commentary - Cramer's Take) should be higher. ... Can't believe that Psychiatric Solutions (PSYS - commentary - Cramer's Take) deal to buy Horizon Health (HORC - commentary - Cramer's Take), more brilliance from a fantastic management.

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Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Horizon Health to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

General Electric owns CNBC, for which Cramer is a featured commentator. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Goldman Sachs.

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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

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