Jim Cramer says investors should stick with Nvidia post decline

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday opined about his long-standing faith in Nvidia stock, even as the company shed significant market cap this week.

“I’m not going into the deep end to please those who want a market with better breadth and greater participation,” he said. “I’m simply going to stick with the stocks of the best companies in the market.”

Nvidia hit a $3.34 trillion valuation last week, surpassing Microsoft to become the largest company in the world. But shares slid 13% in three days, and although the stock started to recover on Tuesday, it was still down about 7% from its record peak by the close, according to FactSet.

Cramer said he is focused on finding solid companies that can perform despite a tough consumer or interest rate environment, saying it is continually difficult to gauge consumer behavior.

He mentioned Pool Corp., a company that manufactures equipment for swimming pools, which saw shares sink after it announced sales had suffered due to weakened consumer demand. Cramer suggested that this data had a ripple effect across other consumer and housing-oriented stocks such as Lowe’s, Home Depot and Fortune Brands.

But unlike Pool Corp., Nvidia’s enterprise customers aren’t lost easily, he said. To Cramer, the company’s customers aren’t likely to take business elsewhere as they risk falling behind their peers on the cloud infrastructure front. Cramer added that Nvidia and its megacap peers that can “pay cash” aren’t concerned with interest rates.

“As crazy as it seems after its recent decline, I think it’s easier to own — not trade, but own — the stock of Nvidia than it is to own shares in any of the companies that depend on the fickle, feckless, torn, strapped, beleaguered, mercurial, arbitrary, confused and clueless consumer,” he said. “If you trade it, you end up missing terrific rebounds like today.”

Nvidia declined to comment.

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Nvidia and Microsoft.