Sometimes it is as simple as doing some work, looking underneath the hood and finding out what's working. The aversion to doing so perpetuates the notion of the disconnect between the stock market and the economy.
That's why we created the Cramer Covid-19 index to capture the true zeitgeist of the moment. The averages themselves were all over the map today, but the index once again shined and is not up much bigger since its creation than the stock market itself. It's not mocking us. It's unemotional. It doesn't register that there are 25 million people unemployed due to the illness because its components are part of the solution, not roadkill.
Let's take a look at the top 10 names and their performance, and you will see why this index, which represents $11 trillion in market value, really captures the moment.
In first place is a stock so controversial that it is one of the most heavily shorted stocks in the market: Peloton (PTON) , with almost 9% of the float short. It makes tons of sense. In fact, some would have said, like many of these stocks, that it was designed for the Covid era. People want to work out. Almost all the gyms are closed. There is a pervasive sense that you are going to get sick if you go to the gym. So you have to recreate the experience at home. Peloton allows you to do that. The clothes are off the Peloton at our house because Flywheel's been closed since March 20th and my once New York State velodrome champion wife is forced onto Peloton. She's lucky, one of our producers, Heather Gaines says hers is back-ordered until late June. The stock's up since 34% since creation and 49.9% for the year.
Two? Everbridge (EVBG) , which was just on Mad Money. Everbridge is a software as a service company that provides enterprise software applications that automate and accelerate organizations responses to critical events to keep them safe and their business running. Everbridge, which has had a compound annual growth rate of 36%, provides 4800 companies with urgent info about their organization, everything from active shooting to Covid-19. While you may never have heard of them - I sure hadn't when I was asked about it on a "Lightning Round" - it serves eight out of 10 of the largest cities, nine out of 10 largest investment banks, 46 of the biggest airports and nine out of 10 largest U.S. based health providers. It owns the market. Its stock is up 32% since inception and 100% for the year. It's the best way to alert a population about a Covid outbreak.
I first met out third best performer at the JP Morgan (JPM) healthcare conference two years ago. It was one of those in-the-hall meetings where I said, wow, using artificial intelligence, using Amazon (AMZN) Web Services to develop vaccines faster than anyone ever imagined. Well, here we are, the whole would counting on Moderna (MRNA) to give us a vaccine for Covid-19 before anyone else, maybe before the end of the year. I am a skeptic because this would be their first go-to-market vaccine. But many think it is ahead of everyone else which is why it's stock is up 28% since inception of the index and 231% since the year began.
Fourth is Livongo Health (LVGO) which has been on a couple of times. It's a remarkable healthcare company that empowers people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives starting with diabetes, and now includes hypertension and weight management. That's three of the biggest reasons that Covid-19 can be fatal, which is why this stock is up 27% and 89%, respectively.
Fifth is DexCom (DXCM) , a remarkable company with the best glucose monitoring system for diabetes. There's no pin prick and it can be used remotely. It's the gold standard and has multiple iterations that just get better and better. It's up 24.4 since the index started and 89% for the year.
Last week, when we had number six on, Beyond Meat (BYND) , it coincided with the disastrous revelations about the Covid outbreaks in the meatpacking plants. CEO Ethan Brown may be the most eloquent evangelist for his company of anyone I have ever met. He knows that beef prices have to come up because of the meatpakers' problems. So what's he doing? He's cutting prices to take share. Brown's got two deals, one with Starbucks (SBUX) that is rolling out in China and the other with McDonald's (MCD) that took place in Canada, and I think is a harbinger of something much bigger down the line. The stock's up 23% since we started keeping score and 77% for the year.
If you are going to open thousands of home offices you need a spend management company and that's what Coupa Software (COUP) is. I know it sounds banal and the first couple of times we had CEO Rob Bernshteyn on I figured it wasn't proprietary enough. But that was just plain wrong. This seventh best performer, with a gain of 23% since our first reading and 38% since the start of the year, is a huge beneficiary of the Covid-recession.
We love having number eight, The Trade Desk (TTD) , on because it's the best way to play internet advertising because it has a fantastic on-line trading platform. A lot of momentum guys have been leaving this hot stock because they believe that internet ads are going to slow, but they haven't at all which is why this stock keeps powering higher and is up 21% since inception and 19% for the year. Advertising is not recession proof so I get the trepidation but it has held up much better than anyone thought.
You want to trade bonds from your new home office? You can do it now, with the electric bond trading platform that is MarketAxess (MKTX) . We've been on these guys from the get-go because the digitization of the bond market, the last bastion of interpersonal trading, is now left in the past by this company. Rick McVey's business was doing well but the spur of work from home put it at number nine of the top 10, up 20% since inception and 34% since the beginning of the year.
Finally there is the remarkable PayPal (PYPL) , Dan Schulman's company, which had been doing well before the Covid outbreak, but is now breaking away from all fintech credit card plays because people aren't going out to shop. They are staying home. They are staying at home and ordering things. And there's a good chance they are ordering through PayPal. After a remarkably great quarter the stock's up 20% since we added it to the index and 33% for the year.
I know it seems like I stacked the deck here with the Cramer Covid but I could rip down the next 10 or the next 10 after it and you would just hear about stories of stocks that simply perform better when you don't go out, or when you are trying to monitor your health in the time of Covid, or you want something more natural and organic that isn't contaminated by Covid.
There are simply an immense number of health and technology and safety companies coupled with businesses that thrive when you have to stay home. It's where the big gains are and they do mask the rot underneath, the companies with stocks that are in the blast zone, travel and leisure, aircraft, cruise lines and the like.
Remember there is nothing irrational about the moves here. They are simply the right stocks for the wrong time.
(JP Morgan, Amazon, and Starbucks are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells these stocks? Learn more now.)
