$ACI Albertsons Tape Reports
Per Ticker.id: $ACI Albertsons Tape Reports — 5 podcast mentions across 2 podcasts (30 days), latest 2026-08-20 23:21 UTC.
Who's that, Sam? What company? Nike. Nike. All right, Sam, look, I wish it were just quality. I wish it were just market share. I wish it were just the cost. I wish it were something. There are just too many things going wrong right now with Nike and the whole industry slowing down. Sometimes you can't even blame what they're doing. It's just nothing's working. Micron is succeeding in an industry where so many others have failed. That's partly why it was one of the only positive AI-related stocks in today's red tape. On Make Money Tonight, on the heels of their $250 billion manufacturing announcement, I'm sitting down with our host for the day, Micron CEO. Don't miss our wide-ranging conversation. Then a different Boise-based company, Albertsons, hasn't doing that well at all. So what's been going on with that grocery stock? I'm digging deeper and I'm taking you behind the scenes of this fantastic facility and showing you the area that inspired me the most and reminded me just how meaningful Micron's American investment is. So stick with Kramer.
Jim Cramer — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26 · 2026-08-20Coming up, Micron isn't the only big company in Boise, so should you be buying into Albertsons also? Kramer's checking it out next.
Speaker G — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26 · 2026-08-20I was getting ready to come out here to Boise, Idaho. I kept thinking, what the heck happened to the stock of Albertsons, the Boise-based supermarket chain? You might also know them as Safeways, Vons, or my late mom's fave, Acme. Here's a stock that's been really put through the meat grinder. I mean, just awful. A house of pain. Down 30% year to date and down over 68% from its highs set roughly 4 and a half years ago, in large part because they tried and failed to merge with Kroger, a deal that was shot down by President Biden's antitrust team because the FTC feared the two together would be way too powerful, could raise prices with impunity, screwing the consumer. See, Albertsons came public in the summer of 2020. It had previously been taken private by Cerberus back in 2006, and that was soon to be a great time to be in the grocery business. The pandemic had tons of people eating most of the meals at home, remember? The IPO price is $16. By early 2022, the stock was trading in the mid to high 30s. Then the world started going back to normal and the stock of Albertsons got clobbered down to the 20s. In October 2022, though, they got this takeover bid from Kroger for $25 billion in cash and stock. This would have combined the second and fourth largest grocery chains in America. America, creating a true powerhouse. Problem is, this was back when Lina Khan was running the Federal Trade Commission. She was reflexively hostile to pretty much all mergers. So the FTC took Kroger and Albertsons to court. They got this preliminary injunction against the merger in December 2024. And then the next day, Albertsons gave up, threw in the towel, said, no way, can't do it. Turns out Kroger might have really dodged a bullet here because Albertsons has been doing worse and worse ever since. Just look at the latest quarter, which they reported in late July. Albertsons posted a 0.8% decline in same-store sales, worse than the 0.5% decline Wall Street was looking for. Their gross margin shrank by 50 basis points. Their earnings per share came in at $0.42. Analysts were expecting $0.54. That was down 24% year over year.
Jim Cramer — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26 · 2026-08-20Albertsons even cut its full-year forecast practically across the board, saying they'll earn $1.75 to $1.85 per share when previously they'd been guiding for $2.22 to $2.32. Those are disastrous numbers, people, much worse than whatever anyone might have thought about Walmart results today, which is why the stock immediately plunged a shocking 22%. CEO Susan Morris blamed on the quote, "Your increasing pressure from industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer," end quote. Now, in opposition In Alberson's defense, the industry-wide pressure is real. Just a couple of weeks ago, I checked in with Sysco, the SYI kind, giant food distributor, and I was struck by a chart they featured in their earnings deck. The chart referencing sales data from the Census Bureau shows that there's been a 3-decade-plus trend of consumers spending more money on food away from home and less money at grocery stores like Alberson's. That changed dramatically, sure, during COVID But after the pandemic, it only got worse. That drives what we've seen between food inflation, rising gas prices. People are buying less and less stuff from the supermarket. You heard that refrain from Walmart. Now, Albertsons says they have a plan to fix this. They're trying to simplify their operating model from 11 divisions, some regional, some brand-based, and just 4 regions with a central merchandising hub. Maybe that'll do it. I don't know. But Wall Street doesn't seem to have much faith in management's ability to turn things around. Ah, I don't buy this. A tough industry at this point. The stock selling for less than 7 times the midpoint of its full-year earnings forecast, 5.7% dividend yield. That's too high. You know what that means. Ordinarily I might find that valuation enticing, but sometimes stocks are cheap because they deserve to be cheap. For me, this is one more example of what happens when well-meaning antitrust enforcement backfires and creates a situation that It's worse than what the regulators were even trying to prevent. We saw that when Biden's Justice Department blocked the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. They didn't want more airline consolidation, especially in the low-cost space. But less than a year later, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy, then emerged from bankruptcy, then went under again before fully closing up shop this spring. It would have been better if they just let the plane stay under JetBlue's name.
Jim Cramer — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26 · 2026-08-20Same thing happened with Walgreens. They tried to buy the struggling Rite Aid back in 2015. FTC fought tooth and nail to block it because those were two of the big three drugstore chains. But Rite Aid couldn't stand on its own. Last year they shuttered all the stores. The deal got blocked and the drugstore industry still went from 3 to 2. With Kroger's acquisition of Albertsons, they would have combined two of the top four grocers in America. This incredibly competitive industry dominated by Walmart with roughly 20% market share. Kroger and Albertsons Kroger and Albertsons combined currently have less than 13%. That would have given them more scale to hold their own against a Walmart, a Costco, Publix, Amazon-based Whole Foods, and the foreign discount grocers that have taken over America like Aldi. At least, let's say, taken over by storm. I'd argue Kroger and Albertsons needed to merge to stay competitive in a tough business. The two together could be a great counterweight to areas where there's only a Walmart buy or a Costco. Both Albertsons and Kroger have lost market share over the years, and Kroger stock is down 10% year to date. Here's the bottom line: Albertsons is not doing well, to put it lightly. I think they should have been allowed to merge with Kroger years ago, but hey, you know what, maybe it's not too late. The Trump administration doesn't seem to believe in any antitrust enforcement, so maybe they should just give it another try. Consolidation is their best shot at staying competitive. Merge 'em. And let them compete against the big boys. Better for all of us, especially the shareholders of the other big company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Everybody's back at the break. It is time! It's time for the a very special auto version of Lightning Round on Mid-Money. That's where I take your calls about Friday, same thing as I do on Buy Buy Buy, Sell Sell, if you go to the call stock, which is at the top of my Snapchats description. We're going to play this out and then the Lightning Round is over. Are you ready, Ski Dad, for the Lightning Round? Let's start with Ryan in Ohio. Ryan, booyah, Big Daddy Kramer, booyah, hit me! Hey, uh, I got a, I got a lump of coal and it's been under some pressure.
Jim Cramer — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26 · 2026-08-20