‘Covid winners’ like DocuSign still have time to reinvent

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday lamented the languishing stocks of pandemic winners like DocuSign — but suggested the window of reinvention has not been slammed shut just yet.

“We know it hasn’t been long since the pandemic effectively ended, but we’re so quick to fault the Fed for providing too much liquidity or Congress for doing too much deficit spending,” the “Mad Money” host said. “The truth is, we’d be in a much better situation if the private sector had been proactive about transitioning to a post-Covid world.”

Cramer highlighted a number of companies with Covid-fueled businesses that he believes have not done enough to thrive in an operating environment without significant public-health disruptions. He said he also puts Zoom Video, Clorox and Peloton within this classification, although he acknowledged at this point Peloton’s balance sheet complicates reinvention efforts.

With DocuSign, for example, Cramer said he wishes the company used the roughly $1 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet to be more aggressive in the acquisitions realm.

“There are so many ancillary identity and cybersecurity deals they could’ve done that it is just painful,” he said. “The bottom line is that it’s not too late for some of these outfits, like Zoom, that are sitting on big piles of cash, to reinvent. They just can’t seem to point the camera at themselves and see the truth,” he added.