Stock Smackdown: Cramer vs. CAPS

• Email
• Share
• Print

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 opinions of more than 140,000 members to assign 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 them to how the CAPS community sees their future.

Stock	Lightning Round Show Date	Cramer's Rating	CAPS Rating  (out of 5)
Research In Motion	Monday	Bullish	***
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)	Monday	Bullish	***
Altria	Tuesday	Bullish	**
Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA)	Tuesday	Bearish	****
Goldman Sachs	Wednesday	Bullish	****
Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI)	Wednesday	Bullish	**
A123 Systems	Thursday	Bearish	**
Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX)	Thursday	Bearish	*
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA)	Friday	Bearish	****
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT)	Friday	Bullish	****

Cramer says
Even the Mad Money star is impressed with the success Human Genome Sciences has had with its lupus therapy, Benlysta. Cramer says encouraging results following two late-stage trials are only the beginning for the biotech if the drug makes it to market, and that makes him want to ride this bull:

You know what?... I think this is another great speculation... the stuff that they are doing on Lupus again, I do not know what is ultimately going to happen... but if that works out... that is going to be an even bigger company than it is... I am staying invested in Human Genome.

CAPS says
The CAPS community is generally behind Human Genome Sciences as well, with 69% of those rating the biotech believing it will outperform the market, and a slightly lower percentage of All-Star members backing it. Interestingly, Wall Street is firmly behind the company, with all 17 analysts marking it to outperform. The company's CAPS rating has jumped to three stars, from a lowly one star before it shook the market with the Benlysta news.

While the lupus drug is certainly worth getting excited about, investors like CAPS member jwhitehead1 think Human Genome Sciences has a number of potential irons in the fire that can serve as near-term catalysts:

Beyond the expectation that [GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK)] will make an offer on HGSI late 2Q or early 3Q, 3 billion in potential goes a long way toward this company beating the street and Benylsta isn't the only pony in the stable.

This Fool says
There may indeed be other opportunities for development out there, but Benlysta captures the imagination. The drug has blockbuster written all over it -- pending approval, of course. Lupus has had a way of tripping up previous entrants, and there haven't been any new therapies introduced for more than half a century. Several promising candidates failed earlier this year.

With an addressable market opportunity that the analysts at Lazard Capital Markets peg at $2.9 billion annually, this is HGS's chance to break out even bigger. I'm heading over to Human Genome Sciences CAPS page to rate it to outperform the market. It might seem like closing the barn door after the cows have left -- shares are up about 1,000% so far this year -- but there could still be plenty of time to milk this opportunity. Join me on CAPS to let me know how you feel, or leave your remarks in the comment section below.  

Your say
While CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer or on opposite sides of the field, the investor-intelligence community is more than what some All-Stars think, even if they are TV personalities. Is Cramer right or off his rocker? No need to hedge your thoughts on CAPS.

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.