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NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- You have the right to overpay for a stock if you want to, Jim Cramer told
"Mad Money" viewers Thursday as the markets finally greeted the
Twitter (
TWTR) IPO.
But for Cramer, the stock remains "outrageously expensive."
Cramer said investors can pay two or three times what a company is worth if they choose, but he was trained to look at valuations when determining a stock's prices -- and that means looking a revenue and earnings growth and matching it to a company's peers. Using that logic, Twitter is only worth $28 a share, a far cry from the $45.10 where shares entered the market this morning.
Cramer said if
Kimberly-Clark (
KMB),
Clorox (
CLX) and
General Mills (
GIS) were all trading at 18 times earnings but then one of them spiked to 25 times earnings, that would be a big warning sign because all three stocks have the same growth rates. That's why Cramer said to "take the money and run."
Cramer also reminded viewers that all but one of the social media initial public offerings from years past ended lower 12 months after their IPO. The lone exception:
LinkedIn (
LNKD). So while the Twitter IPO didn't have the systemic problems that plagued the disastrous
Facebook (
FB) IPO, the stock still remains highly speculative as these prices. Twitter only issued a sliver of their total shares outstanding, creating an unnaturally small float, which means its highly likely that more shares will be released in the coming months.
Yes, Twitter is a terrifically popular and disruptive service, Cramer admitted, but today the value of Twitter the company and Twitter the stock diverged and Twitter the stock is incredibly mispriced.
The Rest of the Market
The media may be all a-flutter with Twitter, but Cramer said there are still 6,000 other stocks that make up the market and most of them didn't have a particularly good day today. There are a number of things weighing on the overall markets, including rumors of tightening in China, which has sent the industrials sharply lower.
Cramer said the surprise rate cut by the European Central Bank also caught investors off-guard, causing the dollar to spike, which in turn sent commodities along with the independent oil producers lower as well. Expect continued pressure on those stocks as investors continue to digest this news, Cramer warned.
Then there were disappointing earnings from
Qualcomm (
QCOM), which dragged the tech sector lower, and disappointing news from
Whole Foods Markets (
WFM), which knocked the wind from the sails of all the high-growth stocks including
Starbucks (
SBUX),
Hain Celestial (
HAIN) and
Michael Kors (
KORS).
As if that wasn't enough, the Twitter IPO certainly brought back fears of a market bubble, said Cramer. But in the end, he's still planning to use the market weakness as an opportunity to back up the truck for stocks that are down but don't deserve to be.
Executive Decision: Emil Brolick
In his "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer sat down with Emil Brolick, president and CEO of
Wendy's (
WEN), which today delivered a two-cents-a-share earnings beat, but still saw its shares slide 11% on a less-than-stellar outlook for 2014.
Brolick said he thought Wendy's was able to deliver a solid quarter but the expectations on Wall Street seem to have gotten ahead of themselves given today's weakness in the stock. He said that Wendy's continues with its brand transformation and has 180 re-imaged stores open with a total of 300 planned by year's end.
When asked about the transformation, Brolick explained Wendy's has a long history of innovation and this transformation is touching all elements of the customer experience from employee uniforms to food packaging, to the dining space to the food itself. Brolick said the company is expecting a 10% to 20% increase in sales from all of its newly renovated stores.
Looking to 2014, Brolick said the company expects only modest commodity inflation next year and is fully prepared to handle any pressures from food or labor costs. Wendy's will update its outlook for 2014 later this year.
Cramer said the move in Wendy's is multi-year, not multi-day, which is why he remains a buyer of the stock.
Lightning Round
In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on
Google (
GOOG),
Humana (
HUM),
Schlumberger (
SLB) and
Home Depot (
HD).
Cramer was bearish on
Halcon Resources (
HK),
Sierra Wireless (
SWIR),
Freeport-McMoRan (
FCX),
Alliance Fiber Optic Products (
AFOP),
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals (
OMED)and
Transocean (
RIG).
Executive Decision: Mark Papa
For his second "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer spoke with Mark Papa, executive chairman of
EOG Resources (
EOG), a stock that pulled back 2.8% today despite posting a stellar 39% increase in oil production. Shares of EOG are up 36% since Cramer last checked in with Papa in May.
Papa commented on the fact that today was his last earnings call at EOG -- he'll be stepping down at the end of the year, passing the torch to the next generation. That earnings call was a great one, however, because Papa noted that technology learned from the Eagle Ford shale is now being applied to the company's Bakken assets with great results. Productivity in the Bakken is up 50% from just a year ago, he said, making that area once again a growth region for EOG.
Papa said EOG is also "hitting home runs" in the western Eagle Ford area, which means the company really doesn't need to find any new areas to meet their five-year production goals. He was also upbeat on the Delaware Basin, another terrific shale play.
Papa was a little more downbeat when it came to the red-hot Permian Basin, saying he doesn't feel the production growth of 2012 will be replicated in 2013 or 2014. U.S. oil shale will continue to be a game-changer, Papa said, but the estimates have now become over-inflated in his opinion.
Cramer said that EOG remains one of his favorite oil drillers.
No Huddle Offense
In his "No Huddle Offense" segment, Cramer opined on two growth stocks that stumbled today, Qualcomm and Whole Foods. He said of the two, only one is worth keeping and that's Whole Foods, a company whose weakness is likely only temporary given its track record of superior execution.
But in the case of Qualcomm, Cramer said the company has become wildly inconsistent and offers investors too many surprises to make the stock worth the investment.
To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC.
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