Cramer disagrees with recent analyst downgrade of PepsiCo, says the company likely hasn’t hit the top

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday gave his take on Morgan Stanley's decision to downgrade food and beverage giant PepsiCo post-earnings, saying the last quarter's isn't "as good as it gets."
Cramer feels the company's leadership is so strong that it won't be affected by the business cycle or the cost of labor.

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday gave his take on Morgan Stanley's decision to downgrade food and beverage giant PepsiCo after its Q2 earnings report, saying he thinks the company could continue to outperform and that its latest quarterly report isn't "as good as it gets."

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Cramer admitted that PepsiCo's high price-to-earnings multiples give him pause -- it sells at 23 times next year's earnings -- but said he feels the company's leadership is so strong that it won't be affected by the business cycle or the cost of labor.

"But I say when you call a top or say something's as good as it gets, you'd better know something meaningful about management — maybe a great leader's retiring, maybe something's gone terribly wrong and nobody else sees it," Cramer said. "Without those, I think the 'as good as it gets' call is a very risky call to make when a company's got great management at the helm."

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Cramer said he is impressed with PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta, who he said was able to raise the company's growth rate when few thought it would be possible. It went from 4% to 5% to 8% and then this quarter to 10%.

He also noted that PepsiCo bought an 8.5% stake in energy drink brand Celsius when it wasn't very popular and traded for $75. It now trades for nearly double that price, and Cramer envisions a possible PepsiCo takeover of the company.

"This is no longer the old Pepsi or Frito Lay: The company's done a remarkable job building brand equity. It's no longer, per se, a buyback machine — It's a machine that pours money into global growth markets," Cramer said. "Ramon Laguarta is a fantastic manager who's doing amazing things with Pepsi and Frito Lay that even bulls like me never thought possible."