Walmart Or Target? Ahead of Retail Earnings, Jim Cramer Says Stick With This FAANG Stock When In Doubt

The retail earnings season starts this week, with Walmart, Inc. WMT and Target, Inc. TGT releasing their quarterly results on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

What Happened: Ahead of the earnings, CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer offered his take on the shares of the retail giant and its smaller peer.

“Is Walmart up too much? Is Target down too much,” he said, adding that “That's pretty much all that matters.”

Walmart has defied the economic uncertainties and has consistently delivered, and in the March quarter, the company reported better-than-expected results, buoyed by strong grocery and online sales. The company also raised its forecast for the year.

Target, meanwhile, reported in-line revenue and managed an earnings beat, thanks to cost discipline. It also maintained its full-year forecast.

Reflecting the relatively better fundamentals, Walmart shares have gained a decent 13.7% year-to-date compared to a more modest 10% advance by the SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT. On the other hand, Target is down over 12%.

Is Walmart up too much? Is Target down too much? That's pretty much all that matters.. When in doubt, though, stick with $AMZN after that last q!

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) August 14, 2023

See Also: Best Retail Stocks

Cramer Bets On Amazon: After discussing the relative attractiveness of the two retail companies, Cramer said, “When in doubt, though, stick with $AMZN after that last q!”

Amazon bulldozed past estimates in the second quarter, with earnings per share of $0.65 beating the $0.35 consensus by a wide margin. Revenue was ahead of the Street forecast by about $3 billion. The company also issued an upbeat forecast for the third quarter.

After the pandemic boost, Amazon's fundamentals suffered in 2022 but the company has come back with a vengeance. Apart from its core e-commerce business, the company has other growth levers, including its high-margin cloud business – AWS.

The average analysts' one-year price target for Amazon is $174.13, according to TipRanks. This promises an upside potential of nearly 26% upside from current levels.

Amazon closed Friday’s session down 0.11% at $138.41, according to Benzinga Pro data. Walmart rose 0.59% to $161.20 and Target ended up 0.10% at $131.05.

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