We're trimming two tech stocks to lock in massive gains of 150% and 94%

Published Mon, Jul 8 20248:56 AM EDT

Shortly after the opening bell, we will sell 18 shares of Meta Platforms at roughly $542.3 and 20 shares of Palo Alto Networks at roughly $343. Following the trades, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 275 shares of META, decreasing its weighting to 4.45% from 4.7%; and 230 of PANW, decreasing its weighting to 2.35% from 2.5%. We're kicking off the week with a couple of small trims to lock in big gains. These two tech companies suffered through earnings-related sell-offs this year, but we battled them and held strong and now both stocks have rallied through to the other side. Meta Platform shares fell from roughly $493 to $441, a decline of about 10%, after reporting its first-quarter earnings in April. We upgraded our rating to a 1 immediately after the results and viewed the pullback on concerns about AI-related spending as an opportunity. Since then, the stock has steadily climbed higher and thanks to a near 6% rally last Friday, it has taken out its prior all-time high and our $525 price target. We plan on revising our price target in the days ahead, but because of this rally, we are downgrading our rating to a 2 and locking in a huge gain of about 150% on stock purchased in April 2022. Likewise, cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks has been no stranger to huge stock swings on earnings. In February the stock fell nearly 30% after the company said it would aggressively push its platformization strategy at the sacrifice of near-term billings and revenue growth. In May, the stock dipped again on what initially appeared to be a billings miss but later proved to be a beat after a calculation error. Fast forward to today, shares are trading at their highest level since that February sell-off and are 8% above our last sale in June. Given the move, we are locking in profits and realizing a gain of about 94% on stock purchased in February 2023. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long META and PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.