Jim Cramer Is Watching Lowe’s and Target Earnings Reports Wednesday

TheStreet’s Jim Cramer is watching Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and Target (TGT), two retail giants set to report quarterly results before the opening bell on Wednesday. ‘These are the two that often trade -- Lowe’s with Home Depot (HD), so Lowe’s is up very big,’ he said. ‘Target sometimes trades with Walmart (WMT) and Target is not up that much.’ Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of 78 cents on sales of about $14.3 billion from Lowe’s. Analysts expect Target to post earnings per share of 86 cents on sales of roughly $17.6 billion. ‘I think Target is going to be a big beneficiary of Star Wars – they’ve made the stores so that they’ve got the best Star Wars merchandise,’ he said, referring to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which will be released in theaters in December. ‘That said, they have apparel and apparel has been quite bad.’ Cramer also offers one bit of advice before diving into the retail space. ‘When you buy retail these days, you take your life in your own hands,’ he said. ‘It’s much better to be able to buy a biotech that’s a major company right now, than a retailer. We own Target for ActionAlertsPLUS.com and long-term we think [CEO] Brian Cornell is engineering a terrific turnaround.’