In this piece, we will look at the stocks Jim Cramer discussed.
In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed the recent surge in stocks that led to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) touching a record high. Stocks surged after investors turned bullish on oil names following the US operation in Venezuela and a spree in bank stocks. Cramer described the rally and mentioned some of the sectors that performed well:
“I’m just gonna say good things about because it was led by the banks and it is like that when the banks lead things. But it was very spotty I mean if you looked at your portfolio, if the average person looked at the portfolio they would say, jeez, I don’t know, I’m not making a lot money. Maybe someone’s making a lot of money. It was very concentrated. It was not in a lot of the typical tech names. Some of these scattered industrials do really well.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on January 6th. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2025, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 978 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).
10. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 70
Heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) is a stock Jim Cramer consistently discussed throughout 2025. The CNBC TV host insisted that the firm had exposure to AI through its products that enable data center construction. As 2025 ended, Bernstein raised its share price target for Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) to $630 from $557 and kept a Market Perform rating on the shares. It explained that the firm could benefit from the alignment between monetary and fiscal policy. In January, Bank of America kept a Buy rating on the shares as part of its preference for mining equipment providers over agriculture equipment providers. Cramer continued to assert the AI tailwinds for Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) and explained how the firm’s Chairman Jim Umpleby has been crucial in shaping its business:
“I gotta tell you this, Caterpillar’s incredible. Because the more you dig into it, the more you say, even NVIDIA recognizes the role of Caterpillar. That company has so pivoted. David, there’s companies that we remember, that company’s at 56. I remember when Goldman downgraded, before it was at a 100. What happened is, that you had just a, Jim Umpleby came in, and said we’re done. We’re done with this episodic, we’re done with the idea that China, was it good, was it bad. What we’re gonna do is, return money to shareholders, we’re gonna grow the business, we’re gonna go into all new areas, because he was from solar, and it worked!”
“But I did think that his idea of making it so that it was a secular grower, that was something he said day one. I remember when I met him at lunch, I said, I don’t think you can do that. And he just said, well, you know what, there are a lot of doubters. He didn’t say like, just watch me. He wasn’t like that. He was not boisterous. He said, I have to do it, we have to end this stuff. And he pulled it off.”
9. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 75
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) is one of the largest investment banks in America. Barclays started 2025 with a strong note for the firm as it raised the share price target to $1,048 from $850 and kept an Overweight rating. The bank explained that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) could benefit from the same tailwinds in 2026 as it did in 2025. Cramer continuously discussed the bank in 2025 as he maintained that it benefited from the growth in M&A activity and the IPO market under the Trump administration. To wit, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) ended 2025 on a strong note, with data from Reuters showing that it topped global dealmaking tables in 2025. The data showed that the bank advised on 38 of the 68 $10 billion+ deals in 2025. Cramer discussed The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s position in his trust and the bank’s valuation:
“It’s [inaudible] the largest position of my trust. . .yeah, and that’s all price appreciation, I’ve bought a ton of it. It was one of those things where there was this period, where people didn’t, let’s say you felt that Joe Biden was going to be reelected, he was an obstacle to them doing well because they’re an M&A house and there are IPOs. . .”
“But I would say that it was always a bizarre, low multiple stock, during this Biden era. I remembered it at 24 times earnings, 25 times earnings, it was at 16 times earnings, it was the best grower. It was at 16 times earnings, it was like, wow, I mean you get together with the Goldman guys, it would be like, wow, what are we doing wrong? And the answer was, the market was wrong. And I know that that doesn’t seem right to people at home, but they didn’t seem to understand the unique nature of the franchise. And Solomon’s done a terrific job.”
“Look I remember I brought in a guy who only had a million bucks. And my boss came in and says, why are you wasting this firm’s time? And they had people like who had like 25 dollars and they were late on their payments. I mean it was just a major mistake they did. He undid things that had been done two years before. And a lot of people felt that was foolish, and yet, in retrospect, what he did was bring the firm back the way it was.”
