Walmart Inc.

We're Trimming Our Walmart Position to Gain More Exposure to This Energy Giant

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

(This article was sent first to members of the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer. To get the real-time updates in your inbox, subscribe here.)

After you receive this email, we will be buying 200 shares of Chevron (CVX) at roughly $116.50. In addition, we will be selling 175 shares of Walmart (WMT) at roughly $142.61.

Following the trades, the Charitable Trust will own 550 shares of Chevron and 675 shares of Walmart. This buy will increase CVX's weighting in the portfolio from about 0.98% to about 1.54%, and the trim will decrease WMT's weighting in the portfolio from about 2.96% to 2.54%.

Trimming Walmart

Let's start with the sale. Walmart outperformed and actually traded higher during Monday's down session, thanks to its linkage to safe consumer staples that still do well in a slowing economic environment. While we applaud management's commitment to everyday low prices and unwillingness to pass inflation onto its loyal customers, the pressure it has created on margins may limit the stock's upside in the near term. Also, we believe investors want to see real tangible progress with the Walmart+ subscription service before awarding the stock with a higher price-to-earnings multiple. This all being said, we aren't bolting from our position here because we believe Walmart may have the inventory to have a strong holiday season, and the capital investments made this year should help them narrow the competitive gap with Amazon.

We will realize a small loss of about 2% on the trim.

Buying more Chevron

We'll take the cash raised from the WMT sale to get bigger in Chevron, a much more shareholder-friendly company right now, thanks to management's commitment to capital discipline and the return of every single dollar of excess cash generated back to shareholders. Chevron is generating more cash today than they did at any point in company history — even at higher oil prices — because operating costs are down, production is up, and they are more capital efficient. 

Between the trim of WMT and the buy of CVX, we are picking up more dividend yield for the portfolio thanks to Chevron's fat 4.63% dividend yield. Plus, you have a share repurchase program here that was boosted just a few weeks ago to $3 billion to $5 billion per year from $2 billion to $3 billion per year. The dividend is well-protected because even at $60 a barrel, a level that is still well below current prices, Chevron believes they can generate $25 billion of excess cash over five years. And excess means on top of their capital spending program and the dividend.

Lastly, Chevron understands what it means to be a leader in the energy transition. They want to be efficient in their production of traditional energy and also grow their low-carbon businesses. Earlier this year, the company announced it tripled its total planned capital investment in low carbon projects to $10 billion through 2028, including $2 billion to lower the carbon intensity of its operations.

The CNBC Investing Club is now the official home to my Charitable Trust. It's the place where you can see every move we make for the portfolio and get my market insight before anyone else. The Charitable Trust and my writings are no longer affiliated with Action Alerts Plus in any way.

As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Typically, Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If the trade alert is sent pre-market, Jim waits 5 minutes after the market opens before executing the trade. If the trade alert is issued with less than 45 minutes in the trading day, Jim executes the trade 5 minutes before the market closes. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. See here for the investing disclaimer.

 (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CVX, WMT.)

Copyright CNBC
Contact Us