We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Reveals Where Investors Fled During Tariff Selloff & Discusses 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.
In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed turmoil in the healthcare sector following the financial results of a major health insurer that sent the Dow index lower. Cramer speculated that had the outcome of the November 2024 US Presidential election been different, then the healthcare sector could face higher government scrutiny. Healthcare stocks were under pressure during the tail end of last year when the President (who was President-elect back then) had vowed to take on the healthcare middleman.
In December, Cramer had warned viewers not to buy the stocks of some of the largest healthcare benefits management companies. He commented:
“Look I think that if I were the people at [the benefits managers], when the President-elect decides that he is going to take a shot at you, as we know from his first time around, it’s not one off. There’s multiple shots. Multiple attempts to say listen you guys are . . . friction. I would not buy these stocks.”
However, Cramer’s concerns appeared to ‘taper off’ as the months progressed. In a February appearance following Trump’s oath-taking, the CNBC TV host wondered whether the Trump administration’s Justice Department was equipped to take on American healthcare giants. Cramer’s remarks were made in the context of hedge fund manager Bill Ackman advising against buying the stocks:
“Well, again, legislation can do something. This idea of, of creating policy through the Justice Department has not worked. The Justice Department has [inaudible] not been able to create changes. But Congress can. And that’s what has to happen. Look, do I agree with Ackman? I think, I favor universal healthcare [laughs] so I’m way off the reservation. But I do think that if Congress gets involved, as it did under, with Obamacare, they had a shot. Right at the end it was, it was destroyed by the Republican Party. But that’s, that’s what happens.”
This time around, Cramer commented on whether tighter government scrutiny of the companies’ coding practices could affect their loss ratios and drive them higher. According to him:
“Also when you mention that, because Jonathan Kanter now he’s the guy from antitrust, Justice, he was full bore United Health. Had, Harris won, I think these guys were going to be public enemy number one. They have spent so much time ready to go after UnitedHealth for being a monopolist. I will say by the way, the miss that they had on medical costs, I mean they have Optum, they’re supposed to know everything about medical costs. So this was very out of character, Carl. And also because of the weighting, it’s such a big stock, the weighting, it moves the Dow lower.”
He added:
“What was the Justice Department really after? You know, Justice Department, they were gonna gear up. They hadn’t hit this group yet. I think they were looking and saying, who haven’t we hit? You know the ex Justice Department, David, they were erratic. Not unlike what people think about some of the things that are going on, but oh, no one talks about them being erratic.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on April 17th.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).
Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 71
Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) is one of the largest healthcare insurance companies in America. Due to the recent disastrous earnings results of UnitedHealth that sent the stock down by 17.4%, the firm was part of the discussion in Cramer’s show. Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)’s shares have lost 3.7% year-to-date as healthcare stocks have provided tariff-weary investors shelter from an otherwise painful market bloodbath. Here’s what Cramer said about the firm:
“Centene is an issue about what they’re going to do with Medicaid. But Centene’s doing incredibly well.”
Overall, CNC ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of CNC as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. 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 CNC 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.
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