We recently published a list of 8 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Cramer noted that while Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.
On Wednesday’s episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer reviewed the recent developments affecting drug distribution companies and laid out why he is turning cautious on the group. He pointed out that stocks of major drug distributors have retreated from their all-time highs.
“Most of the time, that’s because of vague, amorphous concerns that some type of regulatory crackdown will force them out of business or, at the very least, make them a lot less profitable.”
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Cramer referenced the executive order signed by the President last week aimed at lowering drug prices, which triggered a sell-off across the drug distribution sector. He explained that the order would effectively require pharmaceutical companies to offer the U.S. government drug prices that match the lowest rates charged in other advanced economies. Cramer said the market’s fear is straightforward: if drugmakers are forced to cut prices for their government customers, then drug distributors could see their margins shrink.
“The bottom line: No matter how well the drug distributors have been doing, I do not want to stick my neck out for an industry that now seems to be hated by both the Democrats and the Republicans. It seems like the only thing they agree on, doesn’t it? There are so many potential winners in this market, I say, why take the risk?”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episodes of Mad Money aired on May 14. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock 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).
Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58
Cramer noted that while Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) “knocked it out of the park” with its earnings report, the stock always seems to be in danger.
“These stocks, namely Cardinal Health, Cencora, and McKesson, are seemingly perpetual residents on the new high list. Over the long haul, they’re some of the best performers out there, and they’ve done great this year, as is pretty much always the case. And yet, doesn’t it always feel like the drug distributors are just one bad day away from falling apart… Cencora… knocked it out of the park when they reported last Wednesday… Posted a slight top line miss but monster 31 cent earnings beat off of $4 [and] 11 cent basis.
Even better, just like Cardinal, management raised their full-year earnings forecast substantially. Cencora has raised its 2025 earnings guidance multiple times since originally issuing it in November. That’s what you really want if you’re a growth manager. The stock jumped 4.7% last Wednesday in response to the report, setting an all-time high of $309 and change before settling a little bit below that level…
The big negative development for the drug distributors came midweek when Politico reported that President Trump would be reviving an effort to dramatically cut drug costs by adopting what’s known as the Most-Favored-Nation pricing for Medicare…
As a result, all the drug distributors are either flat or slightly lower this week… so that’s the conundrum with these middlemen, Cardinal, Cencora, and McKesson are all doing incredibly well, but like I said before, there always seems to be a threat that they could be regulated out of existence.”
Cencora (NYSE:COR) distributes pharmaceutical products and provides healthcare services across global markets. The company supports providers through pharmacy operations, clinical trial assistance, and focused logistics solutions.
Overall, COR ranks 5th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently. While we acknowledge the potential of COR 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. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this 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.
