10 Stocks Jim Cramer Discussed

8. UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF)

Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 31

UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) is a uniform company facing another bid to be acquired by Cintas. On December 22nd, Cintas announced that it had made a $5.2 billion offer to acquire the firm. It is the third such offer of its kind, and it sees a per-share purchase price of $275. The per-share price is unchanged from January, when Cintas had made a $5.3 billion bid for UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF). The previous two offers had seen a bid in 2022 and another in January, which UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF)  had rejected. The shares responded well to the deal as they jumped by 30% after the announcement. However, when compared to the January offer, the latest bid came in a changed environment. On November 25th, Engine Capital, which holds a 3.2% stake in UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) urged the firm’s board to explore a sale. Engine Capital added that the gap between the uniform company and its peer and rival Cintas had only grown since UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF)’s former CEO, Ron Croatti, passed eight years ago. Cramer commented on the deal in the context of broader markets’ activity:

“Look we have Cintas today, going back, taking another bite, at UniFirst. These are uniform companies getting together. This is what I expect. Is it going to be wild west? No I think it’s going to be really exciting.”