Jim Cramer’s Top 10 Stock Picks: July 2009

The stock markets surged in July with the Dow Jones industrial average posting its best monthly performance in nearly seven year. The Dow gained 724 points in July which was the best performance since October 2002. Popular Mad Money host Jim Cramer helped contribute to the stock markets rally and many of his bullish stock picks benefited from what has been termed “the Cramer effect”.

While not all of Jim Cramer’s stock picks always perform as you would expect, CramerEffect.com has singled out ten of Cramer’s best bullish stock picks from the last month.

10. Caterpillar (CAT: 68.54 +0.56%) – The industrial stock gained 23% after Cramer recommended the stock on his show on July 20. Cramer stressed that even beaten down stocks, like Caterpillar, become attractive buys when you consider their long-term stories. “Nobody really cares right now whether business is strong or not,” Cramer said. “They just feel these stocks got too hammered.”

9. Wynn Resorts (WYNN: 84.67 +2.54%) – The stock gained 26% after Cramer stated on July 21^st that he preferred Wynn Resorts over Las Vegas Sands. While technical analysis at that time pointed to Las Vegas Sands as being a buy, Cramer recommended WYNN based on the company’s fundamentals. Cramer thought Wynn was undervalued back then and his advice to buy was right on the money.

8. PPG Industries (PPG: 68.92 +1.12%) – On July 6, Cramer stated that PPG was a winner and recommended that investors buy the stock at its current price (then at $43). Since that show the stock has soared 28% to finish the month at $55.

7. Walter Energy (WLT: 77.93 +1.01%) – On the same day as the PPG recommendation, Cramer also urged investors to look at Walter Energy. Cramer called the company a “great conglomerate” and advised investors to buy at the current levels. Investors that did buy off that recommendation saw the stock gained 34% by the end of July.

6. Charming Shoppes (CHRS: 3.18 +7.43%) – After Dress Barn announced it was acquiring Tween Brands at a 20% premium, Cramer suggested that Charming Shoppes might be the next takeover target. He called Charming Shoppes a broken stock, not a broken company, and he liked the fact that while the stock was trading for only $3 it had $1.32 per share in cash. Since that recommendation on July 7, the stock has jumped 36%.

5. Lincoln National Corp (LNC: 25.00 +1.13%) – On July 13, Cramer warned investors that they needed to get positive on Lincoln National. By the end of the month, the stock had rallied 37%.

4. Ford Motor (F: 11.71 +0.86%) – While Cramer expressed mixed emotions over investing in Ford on his July 20^th show, he felt the stock was too cheap to pass up. “I will, under $6, repeatedly tell people to pull the trigger”, said Cramer. Ford finished the month of July above $6 per share, but investors that bought on Cramer’s recommendation saw it gain 39%.

3. Jones Apparel (JNY: 16.97 +3.48%) – While Cramer is not a fan of retail stocks, he managed to pick a big winner in Jones Apparel. The stock gained 42% after Cramer called JNY “one of the best retail operations in America.”

2. W.R. Grace & Co. (GRA: 26.88 +2.32%) – One of the more unusual stock picks was Cramer’s recommendation of W.R. Grace on July 6^th. While Cramer acknowledged that it was an “off the wall play”, he said he would bless it as a speculative play. Speculators saw the stock gain 44% by month end.

1. Gannett (GCI: 13.48 +5.64%) - Drum roll please…..the number one stock pick of Mr. Jim Cramer in the month of July was…..Gannett. While the country’s largest newspaper company surprised everyone with stronger than expected second quarter results, it was Cramer’s prophetic utterance after those earnings on July 16^th that deserves a lot of kudos. Commenting on GCI’s quarterly results Cramer said, “I am not in a million years going to dump after that. I think that you will have a 50% move in Gannett.” Since that show Gannett’s stock has indeed had a 50% jump in their stock price….53.5% to be exact. Nice call Mr. Cramer.

While Mr. Cramer’s stock recommendations are just one of the factors that affect the stock market, we feel that his comments carry a lot of weight. You can track the stock picks of Jim Cramer at CramerEffect.com each day.