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 130,000 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
Particularly in the wake of aluminum giant Alcoa cutting its dividend, Jim Cramer has become very sour on it. But between the $400 million in savings the cut generates plus $850 million it expects to raise from a public offering of 150 million shares and $1.1 billion from a convertible note issuance, and Alcoa will have sufficient cash to pay down its debt. Cramer said:

Last week, I said that I thought that Alcoa's dividend would be cut... They did cut the dividend. I still don't like the stock. If I want to be in minerals, I want to be in Freeport-McMoRan.... I hope that is clear. I hope that is clear to everyone.

Well, it was clear enough that only two weeks beforehand he was advocating that Alcoa was an interesting bullish buy, more so than International Paper, which he's still bearish on. Here's what he had to say at the end of February:

I am no longer going to diss [Alcoa] at $6 bucks. As a matter of fact, I'm going to endorse it as a speculative play. Buy, buy, buy... [Alcoa], unlike International Paper, I think, has a lot more specialty going for it... Can you imagine, this company was at $40 bucks?... Well, [International Paper] was at $40... Everything was at $40 bucks at one time!... Now, I think all we have is, like, 40 bucks!...

CAPS Says
A few changes in the phases of the moon won't alter CAPS investors' minds, which have been fairly consistent in their belief that the leading aluminum producer will arise from the scrapheap of commodities to live another day. CAPS member PhilsPhan1981 thinks even with the dividend cut Alcoa remains in good shape and there's a better chance of seeing the stock soar than fall.

These guys are in good shape......global demand for aluminum will return. They have been beat down the last 2 weeks with news of slashing their dividend and a stock offering.

Your say
While CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer or on the opposite side of the field, the investor intelligence community is more than what some All-Stars think, even if they are TV personalities. But what do you think? Is Cramer right or off his rocker? Why not head off right now to CAPS and sound off with your thoughts on whether Alcoa has lost its luster.

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!