We recently published a list of 8 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) stands against other stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar.

Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently broke down the market’s performance on Tuesday, discussing how President Donald Trump’s early days in office might be influencing investor sentiment. He speculated that the stock rally could be tied to a belief among investors that Trump’s promises on tariffs may be harsher than his actual actions, leading to optimism.

Cramer pointed out that during Trump’s first presidency, investors learned to buy stocks during moments of market volatility caused by his aggressive rhetoric. He noted that Trump’s frequent saber-rattling would often prompt sell-offs, but those moments, when stocks of companies he criticized dropped, turned out to be prime opportunities to invest.

Cramer explained that this pattern of buying the dips was exactly what played out on Tuesday. After months of discussing high tariffs, Trump’s inaugural speech struck a more tempered tone, and he avoided threatening severe trade barriers. According to Cramer, this shift in rhetoric surprised many, especially given how aggressive his stance had been in the past.

“Maybe four years is a long time ago, but people seem to forget the Trump drill. The president loves the stock market. He always loves to send signals that all hell is going to break loose and when it doesn’t, well guess what? The market flies.”

READ ALSO Jim Cramer Discussed 9 Stocks for This Week’s Game Plan and 9 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar

Cramer also suggested that this latest market rally is driven by the prospect of tariffs, especially on tariffs that are smaller than initially forecasted. He mentioned that these could increase if foreign countries don’t comply with U.S. demands. Furthermore, Cramer highlighted the role of new projects such as Stargate, an AI infrastructure initiative backed by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. He noted that this project, which will involve new data centers likely outfitted with Nvidia technology, was another contributing factor to the market’s upbeat performance. Cramer noted that the presence of major tech leaders at the inauguration further reinforced optimism.

“Will it stay this way? What did we learn about Trump the first time around? You could never be sure. The difference on day one? He knows business people, Silicon Valley. He knows how things work. You may like him. You may hate him. But the bottom line? If you’re a tech titan, Trump will take your call. In fact, he’ll call you. Biden, I don’t know if he knew who they even were and he certainly didn’t bother to call them. In the end, I think he preferred to sue them. If you own stocks, which is why you watch me, Trump’s method is a heck of a lot better for your portfolio.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on January 21. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88

Cramer discussed Citigroup Inc.’s (NYSE:C) strong fourth-quarter earnings result which led to the stock gaining.

“Last week we finally got some positive action for the stock market in 2025 with the S&P 500 gaining nearly 3% and turning positive for the year. Cooler inflation data pushed down long-term interest rates and we got flooded with great earnings reports. So what performed best during last week’s rally? When you look at the top performers, there are really some interesting patterns here. Two of the big banks that reported strong quarters made the list. Both Goldman Sachs, which we own for the Charitable Trust, and Citigroup rallied 12%.”

Citigroup (NYSE:C), a leading global financial services company, offers a wide range of financial products, such as cash management, trading, and investment banking services. The company recently released its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings results, surpassing analyst expectations. Its revenue for the fourth quarter reached $19.6 billion, slightly exceeding forecasts. Additionally, the company reported EPS of $1.34, a significant increase from a loss of $1.16 per share in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Citigroup’s (NYSE:C) net income saw an impressive rise of nearly 40%, reaching $12.7 billion. This performance marked a strong finish to the year, as the company also surpassed its full-year revenue goal. Moreover, the company achieved record results in key areas, including Services, Wealth Management, and U.S. Personal Banking, further highlighting its positive financial trajectory.

Overall, C ranks 2nd on our list of stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar. While we acknowledge the potential of C as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than C but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.