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…
Is it wise to walk away from a stock just because it's doubled? Jim Cramer thinks that specialty chemicals company Huntsman is just too risky these days, because it has already more than doubled off the bottom it hit in February. Undoubtedly because of the state of the economy and the specialty chemical industry itself -- Dow, Rohm & Haas, and several other players have all had a rough go of it -- he also thinks Huntsman's dividend, which is currently yielding 6.8%, may be in jeopardy:

I don't trust that dividend.  I think this is a speculative name.  I think that, if you buy this stock, you should recognize that it's already doubled from the bottom and, therefore, a lot of the good speculation is out of it.... and I am saying don't buy, don't buy...  If you need more information, BBT's Frank Mitch is the best analyst on HUN, and I am going to defer to him, but I don't want to buy that stock at this level...

CAPS says…
With 95% of the players who've rated Huntsman believing it will outperform the market, it seems the CAPS community is mixing up a different brew than the Mad Money host. The chemical company is still pursuing its legal case against both Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank for "tortuous interference" when it was set to be acquired by Hexion Chemical. Although Huntsman eventually let Hexion and its owner Apollo Capital Management off the hook in exchange for a $1 billion settlement, it's going after the banks for the full $4.6 billion value of the deal -- as well as the $3.6 billion amount left on the table with Bassell after Hexion made a higher offer. The banks ended up issuing opinions that suggested the combined companies wouldn't survive if the merger was consummated.

Whatever the stock has done recently, CAPS member casey2009 thinks that it's still not pricing in the potential value of one crucial factor:

Very well managed. Business is picking up slowly off 2008 lows and raw materials are alot cheaper. People don't understand sales are down also because the selling price is 15 percent cheaper then last year! Positioned well for market ahead. Also something to consider is the price does not reflect any settlements from the fire in Port Arthur or lawsuits against the banks.

Your say
While CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer, or on opposite sides of the field, the investor intelligence community amounts to 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? Why not head off right now to CAPS, and sound off with your thoughts on whether Huntsman is still in the mix?

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!