Jim Cramer -- Brace Yourself for Walmart Earnings

Walmart (WMT) - Get Report earnings are scheduled to be released Thursday before the open. And investors should brace themselves for Walmart's fiscal 2017 first-quarter earnings results, according to Jim Cramer, co-manager of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio.

Walmart doesn't have as high an apparel ratio in its stores as Target (TGT) - Get Report does, but that doesn't mean the company's results will be enough to satisfy Wall Street. Like many other retailers this quarter, Target has been crushed after reporting earnings. Its stock was falling by 9% on Wednesday. Target is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio.

Shares of Walmart joined in the slide and are down almost 3% too.

Dividend yields are simply not lending any support to these stocks either, Cramer said. Walmart pays a 3% dividend yield, but it will likely hit 4% before it starts to help buoy the stock price at all, he said.

"Walmart has good cash flow," Cramer said, and that's what needed to pay these dividends. Target also has good cash flow, but its dividend yield of 3.3% still isn't enough to matter now, he said.

Other retailers, like Nordstrom (JWN) - Get Report , Macy's (M) - Get Report and Kohl's (KSS) - Get Report , don't have as good cash flow. For that reason, their dividends could be less secure, and they're not helping to support the stocks, Cramer concluded.

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had a long position in TGT.