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Danaher ‘s (DHR) announcement this week that it will spin off its growing water business is a big win for shareholders — including us at the Club. The medical diagnostics and health technology company has a great track record for creating shareholder value through both organic investments and strategic mergers and divestitures. This is another smart move. Danaher (DHR) will separate its Environmental & Applied Solutions, or EAS, business segment as a separately traded public company. EAS provides instruments and software to businesses and utilities to test water quality. The spin-off allows the two businesses to increase focus on their respective end markets. It also frees up capital at Danaher for additional growth investments (organic or via M & A) while allowing both companies to trade on pure-play multiples. Danaher can focus more on science and technology, while the newly formed company can better tap into the fast-growing need for clean water. Fifty-five percent of EAS revenue is recurring. The separation is expected to be tax-free to current shareholders and finalize in the fourth quarter of 2023. Since the announcement Wednesday, shares of Danaher were up 2% in a down market. “I do think this [DHR] should be up more on this news,” said Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis at the Investing Club, during the “Monthly Meeting.” “This is just textbook Danaher. The company has a rich history of spinning high-quality assets that are more cyclical compared to their core life science, biopharma business.” Danaher in 2016 spun out industrial conglomerate Fortive (FTV), which at the time consisted of Danaher’s Test & Management segment. In 2019, it spun out Envista (NVST), which had consisted of Danaher’s dental segment. In both cases, after an initial growth hit due to the divestitures, we saw a notable sales growth acceleration once these slower growth business were on their own. For example, sales growth averaged about 4.1% from 2013 to 2015, dipped in 2016 due to the separation and then accelerated to about 8.5% in 2017 and 2018 before the Envista spin-off. Then following that spin-related decline in 2019, sales again accelerated to 24.4% in 2020 and 32.2% in 2021; some of that was likely also due to the benefit off pandemic related testing revenue. “I think there’s going to be a lot of appeal for this new business,” added Marks. “It is high quality. It is an industry leader in what it does. That’s really why I think this transaction, it’s going to be a win-win for shareholders. Shedding a slower-growing asset, a lower-margin asset, that should allow for Danaher’s price to earnings multiple to expand.” More good news: Danaher’s management team said 2022 core revenue growth is expected to be above the prior guidance range thanks higher-than-anticipated respiratory testing revenue at Cepheid. It’s now expected to exceed $500 million in the third quarter, up from the roughly $325 million management assumed in its prior guidance. Base business core revenue growth is still expected to be up in the high-single-digit range. Bottom line This spin-off is welcome news for long-term investors and a move that enhances the company’s sales and earnings profile in the long run. Indeed, in the company’s investor slide presentation , management said they think that in 2024 and beyond, the Life Sciences and Diagnostics businesses can both grow core revenue at high-single-digit rate. Whereas, they think EAS has a longer-term core revenue growth profile in the mid-single-digit range. The remaining company is also expected to generate about 80% recurring revenue (think consumables that requirement constant replacement), lower revenue volatility, free cash flow in excess of net income and double-digit earnings growth. If not for the weakness we are seeing in the broader market, we would expect shares to be up more on the news. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long DHR. 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.

In this photo illustration, Danaher Corporation logo is seen displayed on a smartphone and PC screen.
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Jim Cramer, during Thursday’s “Monthly Meeting,” offered Club members tips to build a strong portfolio that can endure the Federal Reserve’s tempestuous battle to tamp down inflation. As the Fed struggles to stop prices from skyrocketing, they’re also worried wage inflation being fueled by the job-hopping nature of the labor market in the rush back to work after Covid. Remember, the Fed’s dual mandate calls for fostering price stability and maximum employment. Central bankers are — as a byproduct of their monetary policy tightening efforts — taking assets such as stocks and homes values down, a move that serves to make people feel less flush and want to stay put at work or get back into the workforce. Cramer said that begs the question: “So you may be asking yourself, how can I invest my hard earned money under with that backdrop?” His answer: Do it like us at the Club. Here’s quick look at some economic downturn-resistant sectors in consumer staples and health care; our energy inflation hedge; and how to play out-of-favor tech. Consumer staples Stocks in the consumer staples sector are often great names to keep in a portfolio because they can do well regardless of the state of economy. People tend to prioritize the purchase of necessities like food and household items over discretionary items — so companies, like Club holdings Costco (COST) and Procter & Gamble (PG), that sell and make products people use everyday tend to have steady performances even when overall consumer spending becomes weaker. Alcohol is an industry that tends to do well in tough times. People don’t tend to stop drinking in a recession. That’s where Club holding Constellation Brands (STZ) and its one-of-a-kind Mexican beer portfolio of Corona, Modelo and Pacifico comes in. Health care While these stocks are similarly strong even in a downtrodden economy, it’s still important to follow the Club mantra of investing in companies that make money, give it to shareholders and have strong balance sheets when it comes to this sector. Our health stocks including Eli Lilly (LLY) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Like always, we advise investors to do their research on a company and its financials before investing in it. For health-care companies, keep an eye on the company’s services and products, as well as its pipeline of offerings. If a drug company looks appealing, for example, watch for how promising its trials and research appears. Energy While chartist Carley Garner’s analysis on “Mad Money” suggested that oil will bounce in the short-run and then head lower, we still believe oil is a great inflation hedge for investors’ portfolios and ours. It’s still unclear what inflation’s path will look like, and in the case that it does continue on the hotter side, oil would benefit. Current oil holdings are Coterra Energy (CTRA), Devon Energy (DVN) and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) also pay big dividends. We have trimmed some of our oil positions in recent weeks on strength, especially because we don’t want to be too overexposed to energy. Tech While tech names have taken a beating this year, there are good quality names that have proven time and time again they can come out on the other side of bad markets. We’re talking about Club names Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL) to name a handful. Some of these companies are trading at incredibly low price-to-earnings multiples relative to their historic values. So that’s tremendous value for buyers not seen in a very long time. All four of those big tech stocks are rated as a 1 , meaning we view them as buys at these levels. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) 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.

Jim Cramer on Squawk on the Street, June 30, 2022.
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Frontier’s CEO says it’s discussed potential inflight Wi-Fi from SpaceX or other providers.
The budget airline currently does not provide inflight Wi-Fi on its planes.
SpaceX inked a deal to provide wireless internet for Hawaiian Airlines earlier this year.

A Frontier Airlines airplane taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
Michael Ciaglo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Frontier Airlines “recently” held discussions with SpaceX about adding its Starlink satellite internet service to its planes and is more hopeful about adding such a product than in previous years, the carrier’s CEO told CNBC on Thursday.
Adding Starlink’s Wi-Fi would be a departure for the budget carrier, which doesn’t currently offer inflight internet service. CEO Barry Biffle says skipping Wi-Fi for now allows the airline to be more “green” because it limits weight on board.

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Representatives for SpaceX didn’t immediately comment.
“The challenge is I don’t want the weight and I don’t want drag,” Biffle said in an interview on the sidelines of an aerospace conference in Washington, D.C. “I don’t carry business travelers.”
Most major U.S. airlines offer Wi-Fi on board for a fee, though many are trying to improve the quality and lower the cost.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is currently building its Starlink broadband network, which includes more than 3,000 satellites in orbit so far and has around 500,000 total customers — most of whom are individual consumers.
In June, the FCC authorized SpaceX to provide mobile Starlink internet service to boats, planes and trucks. The company recently signed a deal with cruise line Royal Caribbean.

Denver-based Frontier has explored adding Wi-Fi on board before and frequently talks with other providers but, so far, hasn’t been able to justify the cost. That’s changing, Biffle said.
“We’re more hopeful now that with Starlink coming in there’s going to be some rationalization of cost and pricing,” Biffle said. “When the price gets cheap enough, I’ll put it on.”
He said the carrier doesn’t have a timeline for adding internet service on board and noted it could ultimately partner with a different provider.
Starlink signed its first deal to provide inflight internet with a major carrier in April with Hawaiian Airlines, a service that carrier said would be complimentary for passengers.
Biffle said Frontier would likely charge for Wi-Fi on board, when the service eventually rolls out.
“I have no ancillary products that don’t make money,” he said.
— Leslie Josephs reported on this story from Washington, and Michael Sheetz reported from Paris.

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Roger Federer announced his retirement from tennis in a letter Thursday.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion referenced his injuries and surgeries in the announcement.
Federer, a Swiss native, is 41 years old and his professional career spanned 24 years.

Roger Federer of Switzerland waves to the crowd after victory in his Gentlemen’s Singles Fourth Round match against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain during day seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 6, 2015 in London, England.
Julian Finney | Getty Images

Tennis legend Roger Federer is retiring from the sport after a 24-year career. The Swiss player made the announcement on Thursday in a letter posted to Twitter.
Federer said the Laver Cup in London next week will be his final ATP event. He has faced multiple injuries and surgeries and said he knows his “body’s capacities and limits.” He posted a recording of himself reading the letter.

“Tennis has treated me more generously than I ever would have dreamt, and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career,” Federer read. “I will play more tennis, of course, but just not in Grand Slams or on the tour.”
He holds the professional tennis record for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 with 237, and the record for the oldest player to rank No. 1, at 36, in 2018. The 41-year-old is a 20-time Grand Slam champion. He has played more than 1,500 matches during which the ATP records that he served 11,478 aces.
“This is a bittersweet decision, because I will miss everything the tour has given me,” Federer wrote. “But at the same time, there is so much to celebrate. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on Earth.”
Federer turned pro as a teenager and established storied rivalries against fellow tennis legends Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
He thanked his wife Mirka, his parents, his sister and his business team in the emotional letter. Federer recorded more than $130 million in career earnings. His sponsors include Wilson, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Uniqlo, Moet Hennessey, and Credit Suisse.

At the U.S. Open in late August, he referenced the possibility of his retirement, saying it was “almost time to retire — but not yet.” Afterwards, he walked that comment back as “a total joke,” according to NBC Sports.
Federer did not say what he was planning to do after retiring from the tour, but he concluded the letter, writing: “Finally, to the game of tennis: I love you and will never leave you.”

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Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek said he’d love to own Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu “tomorrow.”
He acknowledged the chances of an early deal are “less and less.”
Comcast has an existing mutual agreement with Disney to sell its minority Hulu stake as early as January 2024.

Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek said he’d love to own Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu “tomorrow” but acknowledged the chances of an early deal are “less and less” as 2024 approaches.
“I would like nothing more than to come up with that solution for an early agreement,” Chapek said in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Wednesday. “But that takes two parties to come up with something that is mutually agreeable.”

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Comcast has an existing mutual agreement with Disney to sell its minority Hulu stake as early as January 2024. Activist investor Dan Loeb is pushing Disney to accelerate a deal so it can fully integrate Hulu with Disney+, creating a “hard bundle” that seamlessly allows users to view content from both services within one application.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Wednesday he would also like to own Hulu if Disney decided to put the streaming service up for sale.
“Hulu is a phenomenal business. … It has wonderful content and I believe if it was for sale, put up for sale, Comcast would be interested,” Roberts said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference Wednesday.
Roberts added Comcast would be up for discussing a sale of its stake before the 2024 deadline, but it’s on Disney to start the conversation. “I think it’s got tremendous value, and, you know, I’m sure our shareholders share that belief,” Roberts said.
“There’s never been a pure play, fabulous streaming service put on the market. So I don’t know that the public markets are the way to judge the value.”

But, as CNBC reported earlier this month, Comcast executives expect Disney to stick to its plan to buy out Hulu.
The question will then turn to price. The best way to value Hulu is to figure out what it would sell for in a theoretical auction, Roberts said Wednesday at the conference.
Chapek told Faber this year’s dip in the public valuation of Netflix should factor in to the eventual sale price. In the 2019 agreement Disney and Comcast signed that guaranteed a sale of the 33% stake by 2024, the companies agreed on a floor price for Hulu of $27.5 billion.
“There’s a floor price too, right?” Chapek said. “Which, you know, wasn’t even relevant 18 months ago, when there’s still frothiness in the streaming business, but now that things have kind of calmed down a lot, that floor value looks a lot more [relevant].”
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC.

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It was to be the biggest industrial merger ever. In late 2000 General Electric (ge), the world’s most valuable company at the time, agreed to pay $43bn for Honeywell, a smaller American manufacturer of, among other things, aircraft electronics. Jack Welch, ge’s ceo and America Inc’s capitalist-in-chief, put off his retirement to see it through. The transaction, codenamed “Project Storm”, seemed a done deal. American authorities gave their blessing, finding no threat to competition (ge made jet engines but not avionics). Regulators elsewhere were expected to defer to America in a merger involving two American firms. So it came as a shock when, in 2001, the European Commission killed it. A diversified ge would, the eu’s competition watchdog argued, wield too much power in the market for aircraft parts. America’s trustbusters pooh-poohed the commission’s theory of “conglomerate effects”. The treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, called the ruling “off the wall”. Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Monkeypox isn’t covid-19. Since May the viral disease has infected 35,000 people in 92 countries, less than one-tenth as many as covid infects in a day. Though symptoms, including fever, headaches, muscle aches and a pus-filled rash, can be nasty, it seldom causes death. Critically, in contrast to covid, both a vaccine and a treatment predate the current epidemic. Their makers, two smallish drug companies, are struggling to keep up with demand. Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

With a fortune of $270bn or thereabouts, Elon Musk is not a man strapped for cash. Thank goodness, for the entrepreneur may soon be compelled to make a sizeable donation to his favourite social-media platform. On September 13th shareholders of Twitter voted to approve the $44bn buy-out offer Mr Musk made in April. The decision was a no-brainer, given that the company’s market value currently languishes below $32bn. In his capacity as Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.6% stake, he would no doubt accept his offer. As the acquirer, he is trying to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter, armed with a bulletproof takeover agreement, is having none of it. A Delaware court will decide the buy-out’s fate in October.Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More