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 opinions of more than 145,000 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.

Cramer says:
How much responsibility does management have to warn investors that things might not be as rosy as expected? That was the subject of Cramer's rant against mobile-phone chip maker Qualcomm after its disappointing earnings report. The company had plenty of opportunity to let investors know ahead of time that while current results might be robust, a little further out wasn't looking so hot. Falling average selling prices will likely limit revenue gains in the back half of the year.

As Cramer said:

Today was an abomination, it was an embarrassment... I am furious at management...furious... I would put them on the Wall of Shame right now... because I have got to tell you, that was just one miserable quarter, the guidance was terrible, they really screwed up... two weeks ago at the Consumer Electronics Show, they could have given us a heads up that things were this... I am steamed at these guys... I had to go buy some, I did buy some today... some of the stock that I sold... but Qualcomm, you come on the show and you explain how you could have said such bullish things and then disappointed us like this...you are an outrageous management and you know it...I do not know how you live with yourselves.

CAPS says:
The disappointment hasn't restrained the CAPS community's bullish sentiment for the chip maker, however. Garyestein figures the sell-off in Qualcomm's shares has made it a more attractive investment now:

A 16.6% drop in 10 days spells buy point to me on this quality stock with current assets that are almost twice total liabilities. Just because Apple is not using them in the IPAD does not mean that they are going to see a reduction in sales. There are plenty of other net book makers that are looking at QCOM for low power consuming, high performance CPUs and chip sets for such devices.

CAPS member pmtwelve concurs, but wonders whether Qualcomm shares' bloodletting has stopped:

A company that is successful on so many metrics - collects license fees (similar to toll revenue) for critical communications technology, assets almost 4x liabilities, decent and growing dividend, generous cash flow as well. About the only thing to quibble about is valuation - hopefully, time will show if this represents a discount from fair value.

Even Cramer had to admit that despite his anger with management, he had to buy some of the stock at these prices.

This Fool says:
Whatever responsibility management may bear for failing to prepare the market, it's been more than punished by the subsequent drop in Qualcomm's share price. The company has typically ridden the wave of cell phone acceptance, and that stratgey remains its future. The smartphone revolution has not yet run its course, but the intense competition among handset makers Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nokia, and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) was bound to put pressure on vendors like Qualcomm to lower prices.

Before they start buying shares, however, investors should remember that Qualcomm's guidance might be subject to further revision later on. Right now, management has kept its earnings forecast intact while cutting revenue projections. But managers' planned cost-cutting initiatives might not pan out, forcing them to take a scalpel to projected earnings as the year progresses.

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? Dial up Qualcomm's CAPS page, and chip in with your own outlook on the company's future.

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.