During the Mad Money episode which aired on Tuesday, Jim Cramer discussed how stock ownership is viewed in the United States, saying:
“Alright, look, lately, we can’t go a day without hearing some widespread misperceptions about stock ownership. I gotta tell you, I think it’s infuriating. Here we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Mad Money, dedicated to the proposition that you can potentially make lots of money by picking individual stocks, yet I keep hearing that most Americans don’t care about the stock market, and this direction means nothing.”
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Jim Cramer challenged the idea that the stock market only serves the wealthy, calling it a flawed and dismissive perspective that overlooks the financial involvement of millions of ordinary Americans, saying:
“It’s the whole reason anyone watches the darn show, and it generally matters, not just to the rich, but to tens of millions of regular people, home gamers, and never let any politician tell you otherwise. […] More than 60% of Americans have some exposure to the market, either directly or indirectly. 70 million people have active 401Ks. Millions more have retired with them. 60 million people have IRAs. Only 156 million people voted in November. I mean, we’re talking half the electorate here.”
Cramer argued that stockholders make up a major segment of the population and should not be ignored. He stated, “It’s not just arrogant, rich people who own stocks.” He also criticized affluent individuals who caution others against investing in stocks while continuing to benefit from their tax advantages. As he put it:
“Now look, stocks are ridiculously tax advantaged, more than just rich people want that. In a world where probably no more than 10% of this country can retire on their paycheck savings, stocks represent a different kind of social security, a one-sided pack where people try to save and the government dismisses them.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 13 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on May 1st, 2024. We then calculated their performance from May 1st, 2024, market close to April 30th, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.
Please note that this article mentions Jim Cramer’s previous opinions and may not account for any changes to his opinions regarding the stocks that are mentioned. It is primarily an examination of how his previously provided opinions have panned out.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
13. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 98
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), the healthcare giant, was mentioned back then after buyers flocked to the stock on hopes it would resolve ongoing legal issues related to its talc products. Here’s what Jim Cramer said at the time:
“Buyers flock to J&J under a belief that it can finally put paid to lawsuits over allegations of traces of asbestos in their talc that plaintiffs state cause ovarian cancer. The stock’s so low that I think it could go higher still if J&J can reach a comprehensive settlement. The plaintiffs have lost 16 out of the last 17 cases against J&J so I bet you they capitulate.”
The stock has had a lot of ups and downs over the past year, recording an overall performance of 2.06%.
Discussing Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in the most recent episode of Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer said:
“You said it yourself like JNJ, the thing that. . .didn’t save their quarter, but what made it so that you kind of liked it is the weak dollar. So remember most of these companies are like wow, bring it down . . . the companies themselves are very pro weak dollar. So when you speak to them offline, they love it.”
