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Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Your 'In' on Outsourcers

TheStreet.com Staff

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

Taking a look at offshore outsourcing on his "Mad Money" TV show Tuesday, Jim Cramer told viewers about the two major contenders in this field: the U.S. and India.

In the right corner, weighing in at a combined $39.5 billion in annual revenue, there is the U.S. tag team, said Cramer, which consists of Accenture (ACN Quote) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS Quote).

And in the left corner, from the streets of Bangalore, with annual revenue totaling $5.6 billion, he said, are the Indian challengers, Infosys Technologies (INFY Quote) and Wipro (WIT Quote).

Setting the stage, Cramer, donning a ref's uniform, said that in the ring are four of the best consulting and outsourcing companies fighting for a bigger piece of the pie. They are all the same kind of company, he said.

Cramer said he understands and sympathizes with the anger that people feel over outsourcing, and agrees that the government should stop ignoring the harm caused by globalization.

But on "Mad Money," Cramer said he doesn't deal with politics and chooses to focus on making people money instead.

While most people know what a "huge market" outsourcing is, what they don't know is the sweet consulting game, he said. Consulting firms get paid to make decisions for other companies, Cramer explained.

"When a company needs to improve its performance, it brings in consultants."

And lately this business has been "booming" because businesses don't know what they're doing nowadays and, thus, find that they need to hire consultants, he said.

In the American team, Cramer said he considers Accenture a better buy than Electronic Data because not only is its consulting business "top notch" and not only does it have "record utilization levels," but it also has strong growth.

In fact, Accenture's growth increased to 12.9% from the 6.4% reported in the past quarter, which Cramer called "good margin expansion." Meanwhile, he said, Electronic Data's business process outsourcing bookings have been low.

Best of Breed

When management in the U.S. decides that its American employees cost too much, they call in large Indian outsourcing companies such as Infosys and Wipro to save money, Cramer said.

There is a growing market for consulting firms, and these two companies are starting to encroach on the American consulting turf, he said.

Cramer believes that Infosys has "some baked-in underpromise, overdeliver Indian-style potential." Also, the company has a low 77% utilization level, has another 10,000 hires coming out of training and is getting its China business on its feet, giving it "a recipe for better-than-expected" numbers, he said.

Plus, Infosys has a low 12% attrition rate, Cramer said. An outsourcing firm's attrition rate is one of the key metrics for such a company, he explained. It is a measure of how many people leave the company at a given time.

On the other hand, Wipro has a higher attrition rate, Cramer said. He told viewers to keep an eye on Wipro as it reports earnings Wednesday morning, but added that he likes Infosys better.

Though "in overall prospects" Cramer believes that the Indian tag team is better than the American one, the two consulting and outsourcing companies Cramer said he likes best are Accenture and Infosys.

Accenture is the best of breed in the U.S., and Infosys is the best of breed in India, he said.

The two represent the best of all possible worlds and are the ones to own, Cramer said, adding that there are subjective reasons an investor might like one more than other.

While Cramer tagged Infosys the better pick for growth, he said Accenture is the better pick for a consulting business.

Hudson City High

Cramer welcomed Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK Quote) CEO Ronald Hermance to the show and asked him how his company has remained on the high list despite all the negativity surrounding the banking business.

"Quite candidly, our model sets us apart," Hermance responded. "The reason we've outlasted in most credit cycles is that we're retaining all our mortgages and not selling them to the secondary market."

This, in turn has led to successful credit quality during the third quarter, he went on to say, pointing out that in the last seven years, Hudson City has not had a net charge off.

Cramer says that having no net charge offs is unbelievable. "It's basically only lending to people that don't need a loan but are taking one out for a mortgage deduction."

Cramer advised investors who want bank exposure without risk to buy this stock.

In his "Sudden Death" round, Cramer was bullish on State Street (STT Quote) and British Airways (BAB Quote). He was bearish on Western Union (WU Quote).

Lightning Round

Cramer was bullish on Yamana Gold (AUY Quote), Hydril (HYDL Quote), DirecTV (DTV Quote), EchoStar Communications (DISH Quote), Marvell Technology (MRVL Quote) and Jones Soda(JSDA Quote).

Cramer was bearish on Crystallex (KRY Quote), TiVo (TIVO Quote), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASX Quote), Select Comfort (SCSS Quote), Sealy (ZZ Quote), Tempur Pedic (TPX Quote), CenterPoint Energy (CNP Quote) and Nuance Communications (NUAN Quote).

For more of Cramer's insights during the Lightning Round, click here.

Want more Cramer? Check out Jim's rules and commandments for investing from his popular book by clicking here.