Cramer Quick Take: Northrop Grumman for the Defense
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The defense sector has been on a strong run in 2013 and TheStreet's Jim Cramer discussed the sector with "Mad Money" Research Director Nicole Urken.
The duo has been saying to buy
Northrop Grumman
(NOC) - Get Report
on a pullback. The problem? There hasn't been much of a pullback to buy; with the latest earnings release, there won't be one on Wednesday.
Northrop, along with other defensive stock leaders including
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) - Get Report
and
Boeing
(BA) - Get Report
, have had an incredible 2013 so far, Cramer said.
Cramer added that the group has been the top performer in the
S&P 500
in 2013, which is pretty impressive considering the index is up over 18% from the start of the year.
An important part of the companies' success was the ability to foresee the government sequestration, allowing them to properly position their operations ahead of time, Cramer said.
In addition, other countries have increased their orders as the United States started to scale back, which helped improve results.
Of course, aerospace has been about as hot as it could be, he noted. While many of these companies have some sort of aerospace tie, Cramer specifically pointed out one that "doubled down" at just the right time.
He advised investors to go back and read
United Technologies'
undefined
conference call transcript. The company, which reported earnings on Tuesday, has apparently increased its operations in aerospace at the perfect time, allowing it to take advantage of the huge demand that currently exists.
Cramer said he loves the defense names, citing the incredibly strong cash flows and dividend payouts that are routinely raised.
-- Written by Bret Kenwell in Petoskey, Mich.
Bret Kenwell currently writes, blogs and also contributes to Robert Weinstein's Weekly Options Newsletter. Focuses on short-to-intermediate-term trading opportunities that can be exposed via options. He prefers to use debit trades on momentum setups and credit trades on support/resistance setups. He also focuses on building long-term wealth by searching for consistent, quality dividend paying companies and long-term growth companies. He considers himself the surfer, not the wave, in relation to the market and himself. He has no allegiance to either the bull side or the bear side.