We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Recent Thoughts on These 15 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.

On Monday, Mad Money host Jim Cramer addressed the market’s reaction to the recent U.S. debt downgrade by Moody’s.

“Stories like the US debt downgrade story from Friday, they are classic… Stories that scare people out of very fine stocks that could otherwise make them rich. And sure enough, when Moody’s downgraded the debt of the United States on Friday, the last of the three big rating agencies to do so, the market opened hideously as the get out now crowd took action. They fled. Then the market rebounded.”

 READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Put These 12 Stocks Under the Spotlight and 15 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar.

Cramer warned that such panic is not a one-off. He mentioned that there will be many other ‘get out now’ calls issued ahead. He said that the warnings often come from sources who either do not fully grasp the situation or are motivated by less transparent reasons. In his view, some are simply uninformed, while others may be experienced short sellers using fear as a tactic to move markets in their favor.

Even if the issues these fear-driven stories point to do materialize, Cramer believes they are manageable. He called out the overuse of the term “stagflation,” often wielded by bearish commentators to provoke anxiety. He acknowledged how difficult it can be to resist the persuasive nature of such arguments. Still, he encouraged investors to stay the course as he added, “You’ll have to stick with me and we’ll sit through this.”

“Let me give you the bottom line: The crucial thing that we in the media can do, and I say this as someone who talks to more individual veterans than almost anyone in the universe, and certainly more than anyone in the media, is simply cool it with the fear mongering and cut off guests who advocate it. A little history and some constructive thought would go a lot further if your goal is not to inflame, but to inform.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on May 19. 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).

Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 51

Praising the company’s CEO, Kevin Hochman, during the episode, a caller inquired if Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT) was a buy. In response, Cramer said:

“Yes, and I’ll tell you what’s most annoying to me, once it started going down, the analysts said, well, you know what, I guess that’s all there, they wrote there, now we’re all bored by how well he is doing. I am never bored by how well a business person is doing…”

Brinker (NYSE:EAT) runs casual dining restaurants mainly under the Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy names. The company also uses a franchise system for some of its locations. Earlier in March, Cramer extensively commented on the company as he said:

“Take Brinker, the parent company of Chili’s and Maggiano’s. We had CEO, Kevin Hochman on the show at the end of January right after Brinker reported one of the best quarters I’ve ever seen. Chili’s had 31% same-store sales growth and the whole company earned $2 and 80 cents per share., nearly a full dollar ahead of the estimates. In response, the stock, shot up more than 16% in a single day, and then it kept running all the way from $154 to $192 in early February. Since then, though, Brinker’s pulled back hard to $141, down substantially from where it was trading before the quarter. So how the heck does the stock collapse like this in a little over a month after reporting a spectacular quarter? Now, some of it’s pure profit taking at the peak. Brinker was up mind boggling 315% over the previous 12 months. Now some of it’s valuation…

We gotta ask, is Brinker worth buying a weakness? Now look, I’ve been a fan of this one for ages. I think the basic story hasn’t changed at all. Brinker’s been able to put up great numbers because it offers customers an incredible value proposition.”

Overall, EAT ranks 8th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently. While we acknowledge the potential of EAT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than EAT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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