As the proxy fight between activist investor Nelson Peltz and Procter & Gamble continues, P&G President and CEO David Taylor offered a rebuttal to some of Peltz’s suggestions on CNBC.
“He’s proposed some things that could be very dangerous to the short term, which is reorganize the company right now, and he’s proposed something very dangerous for the long-term future of this company, and that is eliminating our corporate R&D,” Taylor told Cramer on Monday, referring to his consumer product company’s research and development.
Peltz’s firm, Trian Partners, released a long-awaited proposal last Wednesday detailing changes it would like to see at P&G, including a board shake-up and splitting the business into three smaller segments.
Taylor said the suggestion to remove the company’s corporate R&D, which would turn into three separate R&D departments within Peltz’s structure, would deprive P&G of lucrative opportunities.
Dow Chemical and DuPont’s long-awaited merger may have closed almost two weeks ago, but Cramer pointed out that there’s more to the story.
“You have to remember, the current DowDuPont setup is only an intermediate stage before the combined company breaks itself up into three separate businesses,” he said.
The company, currently the world’s largest chemical player producing $73 billion in combined sales, plans to execute a split that would make it three companies: an agriculture play, a specialty chemicals play and a materials science play.
But according to Cramer, not only is the stock of DowDuPont still fairly cheap at just over 15 times next year’s earnings, but investors haven’t missed their shot to get in on the deal.
“You’re not too late,” he said. “In fact, since the deal was announced in late 2015, DuPont’s stock has slightly underperformed the S&P 500 while Dow has only outperformed it by a hair, meaning the stock could have a lot more room to run as we await Dow-DuPont’s big three-way split. I say trust [DowDuPont CEO] Ed Breen. He’s the king of value creation via breakup. Long live the king!”
Finally, Cramer thought back to the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001. The “Mad Money” host worries that people will forget the unforgettable day.
“That’s why I have a request to make here, a request that if you haven’t visited the sadly beautiful fountains ringed by the names of the deceased, both the workers and the incredibly brave first responders who ran in to help save those who were trying to get out, as well as gone through the museum of remembrance itself, you must do so,” he said of the September 11 memorial at the World Trade Center.
“With this landmark, the incredibly difficult-to-fathom events of that terrible day can be given the context they deserve,” the “Mad Money” host continued. Go there. Go see it. Remember.”
In Cramer’s lightning round, he rattled off his take on some callers’ favorite stocks:
Arena Pharmaceuticals: “They reinvented themselves in a way that makes it so the stock went from being overvalued to being undervalued because it came up in the new formulation. I think it’s a good one.”
USG Corporation: “It spiked in advance [of Hurricane Irma], now it’s coming down. Now, my take is very clear here: let ’em come down and then buy ’em. I think it’s absolutely the right thing because of mold, and you’ve got to replace it because of mold.”
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