On Wednesday’s episode of Mad Money, host Jim Cramer discussed a theme he considers essential to successful investing: the idea that real wealth is being built today by individuals who own just one exceptional stock.
“It is a central thesis to How to Make Money in Any Market, the need to marry some individual stocks with index funds.”
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Talked About These 18 Stocks and Jim Cramer Weighed In on These 9 Stocks.
Cramer mentioned that he is not trying to make the process sound overly simple or guaranteed. He acknowledged that what he is experiencing is not just a wave of nostalgia for earlier market periods. Instead, he feels a growing awareness among individual investors, people like himself and his audience, that meaningful gains are being achieved in real time, every day.
Cramer went on to say that this current environment is not about chasing greed; it is about being alert and recognizing what is happening in front of us. He warned against sitting passively in index funds when tangible profits are being generated in specific names right now.
“Here’s the bottom line: It’s about a return to the days before the dot-com craziness. Days, when if you kept your eyes out, you could find yourself an NVIDIA… In other words, those early days of Squawk Box feel a lot like the market we’re in right now, and it’s a welcome return to form. I miss those days, but maybe they have returned and we could all be the better for it.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 7 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on September 10. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the second quarter of 2025, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer Put These 7 Stocks Under the Microscope
7. Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 62
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer put under the microscope. Cramer mentioned the stock during the episode and said:
“In the third place, there’s Ross Stores… which saw just 1% same-store sales growth in the first half. In the most recent quarter, their same-store sales came in a little light… These guys had pulled their full-year forecast earlier in the year in response to the Liberation Day tariffs, but now they got a better handle on the situation, so management reissued their full-year earnings guidance with the upper end of their range just above Wall Street’s consensus estimate, basically inline numbers, so the stock did rally just 1% the next day.
Now, the fact that Ross actually wasn’t slaughtered… for doing a little bit less than some people expected shows you just how much Wall Street really likes this whole group. Now that we know how all three off-price apparel companies are doing, what about paying for numbers?… Alright, in terms of cheapness, Ross Stores leads the way, trading just 22 times next year’s earnings estimates. That is very cheap, much cheaper than Burlington at 25 and then TJX at roughly 28 times next year’s numbers…
Ross Stores is at 2.2 (PEG ratio)… They bought back 260 million of their own shares last quarter, maintaining their plan to repurchase $1.05 billion of stock for the year. That’s not bad… While Ross Stores noted that their top priority will always be providing high-quality merchandise at outstanding value, they just don’t have the scale advantage that TJX has. But given all the other factors I just mentioned, I’m happy to put Ross at second.”
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) operates off-price retail chains providing apparel, footwear, accessories, and home fashion products to value-focused consumers.
6. Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE:BURL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 41
Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE:BURL) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer put under the microscope. Cramer noted that the company had a strong quarter. He commented:
“Second on the list is Burlington Stores, which saw roughly 2.5% comparable sales growth in the first half because… I… have come to expect more than that, but they have flat growth in the first quarter, but 5% growth in the second, well ahead of the 1.5% number that Wall Street was looking for. Burlington also had a strong quarter. Despite softer trends in May, they were able to beat expectations as business got back to normal in June and July. We care about that cadence. Overall, it was a solid quarter… although management struck a more conservative tone with their full-year guidance, not as optimistic as TJX.
Because Burlington’s got more exposure to outerwear than others, their numbers are more sensitive to variations in the weather. We got a warm winter and their sales got hit hard. That’s why they were more concerned about the second half. Although Wall Street mostly chalked up that to management being cautious and the stock still rallied more than 5% in response to the quarter. I thought that was a gift…
Now that we know how all three off-price apparel companies are doing, what about paying for numbers?… Alright, in terms of cheapness, Ross Stores leads the way, trading just 22 times next year’s earnings estimates. That is very cheap, much cheaper than Burlington at 25 and then TJX at roughly 28 times next year’s numbers… Burlington has a PEG ratio of 1.4… Burlington repurchased just $26 million worth of stock last quarter. In the previous quarter, they did buy back over a hundred million dollars.
Management doesn’t guide to a full-year repurchase target, but if you just assume that the second half will match the first, that comes out to be about $250 million for the buybacks, that’s roughly 1.7% of the company’s market capitalization… As for Burlington, it’s really hard to put any of these companies in last place, as they all have a lot going for them in this environment. But Burlington’s latest guidance was fairly tepid, so if anyone comes in last, it’s got to be Burlington.”
Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE:BURL) is a retailer that provides branded merchandise across apparel, footwear, accessories, home goods, baby products, beauty items, and more.
