Buy, Sell, or Hold? Jim Cramer’s Take on 18 Callers’ Stocks as Crude Oil Prices Climb

7. Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)

Jim Cramer gave top insight on Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW), sharing a game plan of what to buy, sell, and hold right now. A club member asked Cramer which area of the AI and data center trade, semiconductors, energy, or infrastructure, he feels most confident in, and asked about his top three stock picks. Cramer replied:

I’m going to have to go with build out, and I like GE Vernova, and I like Eaton. And then after that, I’m kind of torn. But I think that Corning, because it’s a fiber company and fiber’s taking over what copper was, is the best one.

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) develops optical fiber, cables, and related hardware for telecommunications, and produces glass substrates for displays used in TVs, computers, and mobile devices. Moreover, it supplies specialty materials, emission control products, and laboratory equipment. During the March 2 episode, Cramer mentioned the stock while discussing noteworthy S&P 500 stocks, as he remarked:

February’s second-best performer… is one of the ones that I am most excited about, and that is Corning. It’s a stock we own for the Charitable Trust. It was up 45.7% last year. Now, this company’s a glass specialist. It’s been printing money as it makes fiber optic equipment for the AI data center buildout, and that’s how the stock could quadruple in less than a year. Now, I had my aha moment with Corning after visiting the company’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky, glass plant last September. That trip was mainly about their business supplying glass for the iPhone, but I left Kentucky feeling more excited about the fiber optic opportunity than anything else, and quickly built a sizable position in this one for the Charitable Trust.

Since then, it’s been less than five months, and the Trust has a 96% gain in this situation. Corning’s gradual ascent turned into a fierce rally in late January when the company announced a $6 billion deal to supply fiber for Meta Platforms’ data centers, and then the next day reported a great set of numbers, even better guidance for the current quarter. The stock hasn’t looked back since. I think the big lesson from Corning is that companies supplying components or services for the data center continue to be some of the best stocks in the entire market, even after they’ve moved a great deal.