Cramer Remix: Forget millennial cord-cutters, this entertainment stock wins long term (2024)

In his decades of investing, CNBC's Jim Cramer has never liked the month of September. But this one turned out to be different.

The "Mad Money" host expected waves of hedge fund selling, politically-charged stock declines and negative earnings pre-announcements from companies experiencing a summer slowdown.

But none of those happened. So, with the market's resilience in mind, Cramer turned to the stocks and events he'll be watching in the first week of October.

On Sunday, cable customers will discover whether Optimum parent Altice and ESPN parent Disney resolved their programming dispute over Disney's sports network. If not, Disney is set to black out Altice customers' access to ESPN.

"Normally I don't care about these kinds of things, but I believe this might actually crystallize the debate about cord-cutting and the need for certain programming no matter what," Cramer said.

And Cramer reiterated that he liked Disney's long-term story.

"I bet [Disney] can overcome the problem of cord-cutting and be able to grow thanks to the tremendous franchises, top-notch programming and amazing theme parks," Cramer said. "No need to pound the table here right now. However, I think this is a terrific moment to gauge the value of Disney's programming because we'll see whether people can live without it."

Many may think that artificial intelligence will eventually make human capabilities obsolete, but Cramer wanted to refine that theory.

"I get the sense that when it comes to the power of artificial intelligence, we're thinking way too small," Cramer said. "We don't understand that AI might hold the key to all of sales if we simply learn how to harness it."

But it won't be an easy fight to the top, as the CEO of top chipmaker Applied Materials told Cramer on Thursday. Since the total addressable markets for artificial intelligence are so large, an array of competitive players in every industry are incentivized to fight for a winning spot.

"To use another baseball analogy, it's like steroids — once somebody starts juicing, anyone who wants to remain competitive has to jump on the bandwagon," he explained. "Artificial intelligence is like steroids for your business."

Shares of streaming platform Roku surged after its Thursday initial public offering, so Cramer decided to find out if the company was fit for your portfolio.

"Judging by the strength of its IPO, there's a lot to like here. Roku's been growing at a solid clip, and [as] the maker of the No. 1 streaming platform, this may be the best single play on cord-cutting around," the "Mad Money" host said. "But, and this is a big but, after doing a little digging, candidly, I have some serious reservations about the stock, at least at these prices."

And while Cramer liked the company's positive drivers, which included user growth, a focused business and a strong balance sheet, he had to consider the negatives.

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust Chairman and CEO Joseph Coradino has a unique phrase to describe his company's latest strategic initiative.

After PREIT sold off 42 percent of its underperforming malls and began to introduce new retailers to its properties, Coradino likened the process to a "detox" in an interview with Cramer on Friday.

"When you're done, you feel better, right? And you get stronger. And that's the way we think about the work that we're doing at our properties, because we sold off the bad stuff and what we've got left is getting stronger," Coradino said.

And with European fast fashion retailers like Zara, experiential outlets like , community-focused stores like Lululemon and even the newly Amazon-owned Whole Foods lining its portfolio, PREIT is chasing a number of positive retail trends, Coradino told Cramer.

"We think, clearly, fast fashion, off-price, discount, dining, entertainment [are the] direction that we need to head [in]," the CEO said.

In Cramer's lightning round, he rattled off his take on some callers' favorite stocks:

General Dynamics: "I say buy, buy, buy! One of my favorites. Right now, Raytheon's my No. 1, though. I've got to tell you, I think Raytheon's terrific."

MasTec Inc.: "It's part of the big rebuild for the hurricane, so that's why it went up a lot. I think it can go further too, though."