We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Focused On These 9 Stocks Recently. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.

Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, expressed his frustration on March 19 about how investors often get caught up in discussions revolving around the Federal Reserve, interest rates, and the President’s trade policies, overlooking other important factors.

“Every now and then, we want to make money in the worst way, and when I say the worst way, I mean the dumbest way. We wind up talking endlessly about the Fed and interest rates or the President’s trade policy, whether it’s punitive tariffs, reciprocal tariffs. Oh man, come on.”

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Talked About 7 Stocks & Stagflation Fears and Jim Cramer Recently Talked About These 12 Companies

On Wednesday, Cramer noted that investors reacted to the Fed’s open market committee meeting results with the same old rhetoric. The Fed announced, without any surprise, that it was leaving rates unchanged, and the market responded positively to the news.

Cramer clarified, however, that he recognizes the significance of the Federal Reserve in influencing market trends. He acknowledged that any negative remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, like signaling that inflation is still out of control or that tariffs might lead to higher prices, pushing the Fed to raise interest rates, or eliminating the possibility of rate cuts, would indeed have a damaging effect. But, he emphasized, none of that came to pass on Wednesday.

“But there’s more to this market than the day-to-day action, which is why I want to focus on the bigger long-term themes for you.”

Cramer argued that, even with changes in interest rates, these long-term stories will be what really matters. Among these enduring trends, Cramer spotlighted artificial intelligence. He called the cooling off in AI investments in recent months “wrong”.

He maintained that AI is a multi-trillion-dollar force that will continue to drive market growth and innovation. Cramer pointed out that the U.S. is grappling with a significant labor shortage, and robots, capable of handling tedious, hazardous, and undesirable tasks, are here to stay. AI’s influence, according to Cramer, is unstoppable, unaffected by the Federal Reserve or even trade policies.

“It’s a multi-trillion dollar wave that can’t be stopped by the Fed or even the tariffs. Why? Because AI’s going to change the world and if you stand in its way, you’re nothing but a candle in the wind.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 10. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 91

During the lightning round, Cramer was asked about Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and he said:

“Okay, Merck is too cheap. I mean, it’s got a 3.4% yield. Rob Davis is doing very well. It’s really, he’s made a couple acquisitions. I think they’re gonna work out and everyone’s just so scared of the Keytruda patent (the drug has patent protection into 2028) … and that’s not anywhere near. I think you buy the stock of Merck.”

Merck (NYSE:MRK) offers pharmaceutical products in a range of health sectors, such as oncology and vaccines, and also develops veterinary medicines. Additionally, the company partners with other organizations to advance cancer therapies and innovative treatments. In February, discussing the stock being down, Cramer stated:

“Although Merck, is, maybe the ultimate laggard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Merck perform this badly. Here’s this stock, distinguished from the company, which actually got hurt by a decision by the Chinese to not give their people two hundred million vaccines, GARDASIL, RFK, maybe it’s kind of a reciprocal thing [laughs]. . .it’s great vaccine, you may not like vaccines, but great vaccine, and the, the Chinese have chosen not to use it, they haven’t, and some of it’s with a wholesaler that apparently can’t give anymore to because they don’t have enough money. But that’s the one I’m. . . .that used to be called saint Merck, and I know it’s not high growth anymore but wow, I think it’s worth looking at because it trades like a bad tack.

… No, in the way of what’s really going with some of these drug companies. The loss of, they have a loss of exclusivity for an unbelievable drug KEYTRUDA, but it’s not for years. The only one in this group that acts at all well is Lilly, and I do think that when you’re meeting with the President . . .the drug companies meet with the President and it’s like you don’t know what he’s going to say after.”

Overall, MRK ranks 3rd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently. While we acknowledge the potential of MRK 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MRK 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 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

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