'Mad Money' Spotlight: Cramer Knocks McCormick

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

---

Jim Cramer is losing his taste for McCormick(MKC).

Cramer said during his "Mad Money" segment on Tuesday that there isn't much to love about the spice maker. An odd comment, especially as processed food and beverage stocks are doing well with the fearful investment community.

But Cramer's problem is with McCormick's fundamental issues, not its stock chart.

In the company's second quarter, which ended May 31, it posted a 5% dip in profit to $50.7 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with $53.3 million, or 41 cents, in the year-ago period. Excluding restructuring charges, McCormick earned 42 cents, beating analysts' forecast by a penny.

Revenue slipped less than 1% to $757.3 million, but the company saw worldwide sales decline from currency translation, specifically in its industrial segment, which sells seasoning and flavors to food manufacturers and the food-service industry.

Cramer also said major retailers like Wal-Mart Stores(WMT), Walgreen(WAG) and Kroger(KR) are cutting back on their spice inventory. And Wal-Mart is replacing much of its space with cheaper private-label products, which does not bode well for McCormick.

But the company's stock chart tells a different story than the fundamentals. While the underlying business looks horrendous, in-house expert Dan Fitzpatrick is bullish on the company.

Fitzpatrick draws attention to the fact that the stock recently broke its 200-day moving average -- a long-term measure of a stock's trajectory -- on high trading volume. He sees this as the start of a new uptrend.