by Elizabeth Gurdus
Technology is a favorite sector on Wall Street, so CNBC’s Jim Cramer felt it was his duty to see if investors were too late to buy into one of its top groups: the software stocks.
“It’s good to be a software company right now,” the “Mad Money” host said. “Whenever you see this kind of move, the natural impulse is to ask yourself: have you missed it?” So Cramer recruited the help of technician Bob Lang, the founder of ExplosiveOptions.net and one of the three brains behind TheStreet.com’s Trifecta Stocks Newsletter.
“Long story short, [Lang] thinks many of the high-quality, cloud-based software stocks have more room to run, from long-time Cramer-faves like Autodesk and Adobe, to smaller players that I’ve never talked about, ever: Ansys and PTC,” Cramer said. Cramer started by looking at the daily chart of Autodesk, the top producer of computer-aided design software that helps architects, investors and other professionals create digital blueprints.
More room to run for software stocks like Adobe from CNBC.
Recently, Autodesk transitioned from selling its products for high licensing fees to a software-as-a-service model, and it’s started to pay off, driving Autodesk’s stock higher in October. Lang said that the chart’s Chaikin Money Flow Oscillator, which measures buying and selling pressure, showed a high volume of money flowing into the stock, likely from institutional investors.
“Lang thinks that Autodesk could easily head from [its current price of $124] up to $140, and that’s in the not too distant future. He’s right. It’s not too late. I think the stock’s terrific,” Cramer said. Shares of Adobe have also skyrocketed, especially after the digital media giant’s recentearnings beat. Like Autodesk, Lang said Adobe’s daily chart suggested strong institutional buying.
In addition, Adobe’s Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator, which helps technicians track changes in a stock’s path before they happen, recently made a bullish crossover, which is typically a glaring buy signal, Cramer said.
“Put it all together and Lang thinks Adobe could be headed from $175 to the high $180s real soon,” the “Mad Money” host said. “Ideally, you’d want to buy Adobe into weakness. That means if you can get any.”
Finally, Cramer turned to two smaller cloud plays, Ansys and PTC. The daily chart of Ansys has been tracking good volume in the stock, and its MACD indicator made a bullish crossover about a month ago. Since then, Ansys shares have gained 10 percent.
But Lang expected a pullback in Ansys to $132, at which point he recommended investors pull the trigger on the stock. As for PTC, which makes engineering and computer-aided design software, Lang got many of the same bullish signals from the volume and trajectory indicators on its daily chart, which heated up after the company’s quarterly earnings report last week.
Lang predicted that PTC’s $66 stock could run up to $80 a share in the near future, and recommended that investors buy up shares on any pullback, however rare.
“The bottom line? When a group that’s very much in vogue with the Wall Street fashion show gives you a series of excellent quarters, like we’ve seen with these cloud based software plays, the stocks just keep climbing. That’s classic bull market behavior,” Cramer said. “And the charts, as interpreted by Bob Lang? Well, they suggest that Autodesk, Adobe, Ansys and PTC have a lot more room to run.”
