We recently compiled a list of the 7 Stocks that Jim Cramer Recently Discussed. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) stands against the other stocks that Jim Cramer has recently discussed.
Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, recently addressed how investors can sometimes lose sight of the broader market perspective. He reminded his audience that the key to successful investing is simple: buy good stocks at reasonable prices and sell poor-performing stocks, even at a loss.
“Sometimes we forget what we are trying to do around here. We’re looking to find good stocks at good prices and buy them. We want to sell bad stocks at any price and kick them out of our portfolio.”
Cramer also touched on the current market environment, noting that we’re nearing the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle. While some may argue it’s not yet a cutting cycle, Cramer believes it is, regardless of whether it proceeds gradually. He pointed out that there’s another important factor to consider, an environment that is heavily oversold.
“We know that there are inflationary tariffs in the wind, but we don’t know their size, their breadth or their impact, but that’s why we’re already oversold. People saw this coming, they were worried and they took action ahead. They dumped stocks so they wouldn’t be long or own as much when the meeting (Fed meeting) occurred.”
READ ALSO: 6 Stocks Jim Cramer Talked About This Week and Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round: 7 Stocks to Watch.
As Cramer looked at the market, he expressed his focus on identifying high-quality stocks that have seen significant declines. He noted that, in a market that has already experienced substantial gains, the only place to find true value is among the laggards. Specifically, he pointed to the healthcare sector, where 62 healthcare stocks in the S&P 500 are currently down by an average of 19.7% from their peaks. Cramer acknowledged that some of this decline is tied to real risks within the sector, such as President-elect Trump’s focus on addressing middlemen in the drug industry, including pharmacy benefit managers and drug distributors. However, he believes much of the risk has already been priced into these stocks, making them potentially attractive investments at this point.
Cramer also drew attention to the medical device and technology sector, where stocks are on average down 17.6% from their highs.
“Now the goal is to build a position that starts somewhere well below where it was, simply because it has gone out of style in the current version of the Wall Street fashion show and is being hit with heavy end-of-the-year tax selling… You know why you do this? Because of the overarching principle behind good investing, buying low so that one day you can sell high, or maybe not sell at all.”
A surgeon in a modern operating room holding advanced medical devices with a sense of purpose and accuracy.
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 7 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the recent episode of Mad Money on December 17. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, 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).
Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 60
Talking about stocks that are deep discounts, Cramer mentioned Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) and said:
“… Which brings me to Medtronic. Yeah, the medical device company that’s focused on cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, robotic surgery, and diabetes. Full disclosure, Medtronic’s been a long-term underperformer, up just 12% over the past decade. The stock had a big run during the early portion of the pandemic, reaching new all-time highs, but the gains didn’t last. By the time Medtronic bottomed in late 2023, the stock was actually below where it traded in March of 2020 during the depths of the Covid crash. That’s miserable. But I’m interested in Medtronic here because the company seems to be making a turn, getting back its momentum from the recent spate of weakness in healthcare. In late October, the stock had reached its highest level since August 2022. But in the weeks since, Medtronic’s plunged down 12% from that high.
You know what? It’s exhausting, but I think it’s a steal. Medtronic’s had a bunch of successful product launches in recent quarters with around 120 product approvals over the past 12 months in key geographies. Very exciting stuff in transcatheter aortic valve replacement, pulsed field ablation, and leadless pacemakers. Not to mention new functionality for their Hugo robotic surgery platform, which I find very interesting, but not a lot of people are talking about. This wave of innovation has translated into much better numbers over the past couple of years, starting with eight straight quarters of mid-single-digit organic sales growth. Medtronic’s earnings were basically flat in the last full fiscal year, which ended in April but in the current 2025 fiscal year, the earnings are expected to grow by almost 5%.
And if you believe the consensus estimates, that should accelerate to 7% in fiscal 2026 and 8% in fiscal 2027. When Medtronic reported its most recent numbers in mid-November, the stock sold off a bit, but the actual quarter was strong. Management even raised their full-year organic sales growth forecast and their earnings forecast. So I’d be looking to buy Medtronic in the weakness, but the stock’s selling for just under 14 times next year’s earnings estimates. That’s pretty amazing. It’s one of the cheapest names in the medtech group and hey, Medtronic’s paying you to wait for a comeback. It’s got a bountiful 3.4% dividend yield, very safe, best in the medtech space by a wide margin.”
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), a global leader in medical technology, is engaged in the development and sale of a wide array of medical devices and therapies. The company reported solid growth for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, with total revenue reaching $8.4 billion, up 5.3% from the previous year. The Cardiovascular division saw a 6.1% revenue increase, while the Neuroscience Portfolio grew by 7.1%. The Medical Surgical Portfolio rose 1.2%, and the Diabetes segment posted a 12.4% revenue increase, contributing to the company’s overall strong performance.
In October, it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Affera Mapping and Ablation System. This system is designed to treat persistent atrial fibrillation and a specific type of atrial flutter. Additionally, during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Chair and CEO Geoff Martha revealed that the company plans to submit its Hugo surgical robot to the FDA in the first quarter of 2025.
Moreover, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) raised its forecast for organic revenue growth to a range of 4.75% to 5%, up from the previous estimate of 4.5% to 5%. In addition, the company revised its diluted non-GAAP EPS guidance for FY25, increasing the range to $5.44 to $5.50, compared to the earlier projection of $5.42 to $5.50.
Overall, MDT ranks 5th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer has recently discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of MDT 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 MDT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.