Stock Smackdown: Cramer vs. CAPS

There's no denying that Mad Money host Jim Cramer is entertaining, popular, and passionate. On many occasions, he's even right. So he's smart, funny, and the closest thing to a stock market rock star -- but is he smarter than you?

Cramming for Cramer
The Fool's free investing community, Motley Fool CAPS, aggregates the opinion of more than 135,000 members, assigning ratings for each stock's likelihood of outperforming or underperforming the market.

Below, we look at some top stocks that Cramer picked and panned during last week's "lightning rounds," and compare his opinions to the CAPS community's view of their future:

Stock	Lightning Round Show Date	Cramer's Rating	CAPS Rating
CME Group (NYSE: CME  )	Monday	Bullish	****
Manitowoc	Monday	Bearish	*****
Altria (NYSE: MO  )	Tuesday	Bearish	****
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  )	Tuesday	Bearish	****
Suntech Power (NYSE: STP  )	Wednesday	Bearish	****
Cameco	Wednesday	Bearish	*****
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA  )	Thursday	Bearish	****
YUM! Brands	Thursday	Bullish	****
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  )	Friday	Bullish	***
Hartford Financial Services (NYSE: HIG  )	Friday	Bearish	**

Cramer says …
At what point does a tax burden become unsustainably vast, destroying the business on which it's been imposed? Cramer thinks we may be approaching that tipping point now with Altria. The cost of a pack of cigarettes in some cities is around $9 or more, with federal taxes contributing $1 of that after a massive tax hike back in April. In some states, including New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, taxes can compose 40% or more of the average cost of a pack. Some analysts -- and Altria subsidiary Phillip Morris itself -- think this hefty taxation will cause a 9% annual decline in cigarette consumption.

As Cramer opined:

It kills me that I sold it...I feel that Altria is Phillip Morris...here is the problem with Altria, why I decided to sell it... I decided to sell it because I could not take the headline risk anymore... I was able to deal with it under the Republicans, I knew there would be no problem... under the Democrats, it seemed like their would be no problem... but when I go to my newsstand and I talk to my friend Sid, all he tells me is that when it got to $8.50, the customers finally quit... I think that that is going to catch up with Altria... but the dividend is fine... I think that it is just not going to go anywhere... it is kind of like owning a bond with a little more risk.

CAPS says …
The tax hikes are difficult, but cigarette makers are passing along a large portion of those costs to consumers. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that in the past, a 10% hike in taxes resulted in a 4% decline in the number of smokers. While the CDC expects the huge increase in federal levies to spur as many as 1 million people to quit, there are still 45 million adult smokers in the U.S.

That kind of resistance to confiscatory tax policies brightens CAPS member Dvinity's outlook for Altria:

As the market leader Altria should be able to pass the recent tax hikes through to customers without losing market share. And, the acquisition of UST should provide the next growth engine for Altria. Although, the litigation possibility still remains.

Have your say
While CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer, or on opposite sides of the field, our investor-intelligence community is more than the opinions of a handful of All-Stars, even if they are TV personalities. What do you think? Is Cramer right, or off his rocker? Head to CAPS right now and sound off with your thoughts on whether Altria is going up in smoke.

With its four-star rating, Altria is one of the top-rated companies in the CAPS Tobacco tag, which carries a three-star average. Motley Fool CAPS is a great place to start your own research on these stocks. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page. Best of all, it's free.