Jim Cramer's Mad Money In-Depth Stock Picks 7/26

Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Wednesday July 26. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis:

The Cool Factor: Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Tim Hortons (THI), Home Depot (HD), Best Buy (BBY), General Motors (GM), Zumiez (ZUMZ), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Starbucks (SBUX), News Corp. (NWS), VF Corp. (VFC)

Companies are not just judged by their fundamentals, but, like art, their valuation determines whether or not they are "cool." "When I talk about valuation, I mean the price-to-earnings ratio," Cramer said. "The thing that is causing stocks to jump around is coolness." On the "uncool" list are WMT, THI and HD. WFMI, however, is very "cool." One factor that encourages people to buy BBY or ZUMZ, for example, that they see "all those BMWs in the parking lot." Some stocks may go from "uncool" to "cool" overnight; "Not long ago you could not give away a General Motors (GM)." Cramer added, "Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), is like a Renoir, a benchmark. Starbucks (SBUX) is like a Hockney....News Corp.'s (NWS) acquisition of MySpace seemed like a dramatic overplay," he said. "Like a Klimt -- or Verklempt." Cramer suggests looking for the next cool thing, like VFC, which has Van's footware and North Face Brands.

Top Ten Tech.Takeover Targets: Broadcom (BRCM), Western Digital (WDC), Palm (PALM), Wind River Systems (WIND),Websense (WBSN), BEA Systems (BEAS), Tibco (TIBX), Filenet (FILE), Avid Technology (AVID), and ActiveIdentity (ACTI)

Cramer says that the market is shooting everything down that has a high multiple, and he sees potential consolidation in this trend. He listed the top ten tech takeover plays, but said that investors could find their own by looking at which companies have been knocked down and yet have the greatest potential for earnings. For instance, BRCM is a "hated stock" because of the options backdating scandal, and yet it is "a great chip company," and Cramer thinks it may be bought by Symantec (SYMC). According to Citigroup (C), there is a need for middleware, which is made by Tibco and BEA Systems. He believes that Oracle (ORCL) or SAP (SAP) could buy either of these companies.

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