In this piece, we will look at the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed.
In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed public interest in nuclear power stocks. Nuclear stocks have been quite popular ever since AI infrastructure companies became interested in nuclear power to generate clean energy for data centers. Cramer discussed the sectors that the public is interested in and lamented that not enough attention was being paid to these sectors. The CNBC host has also been a critic of quantum computing stocks because just like nuclear, he believes that quantum computing companies might not be able to generate revenue in the immediate future.
According to Cramer:
“But you know David, the public, we’re not conscious enough about what the public’s buying. I mean they’re buying every single nuclear company cause of this TVA project, right. They’re buying quantum because Jensen said we gotta have some quantum. They’re buying anything brokerage. They’re buying anything that is the second tier of the data centers. . . .no I’m just saying that we don’t spend enough time on our network analyzing what the younger people are buying through Robinhood.”
Another topic that Cramer discussed is rare earth metals. These metals have become a bone of contention between the US and China. Cramer discussed alternatives to the Chinese rare earth supply. One country that’s caught his attention is Mexico. “There’s a reserve in Mexico, of, of these rare earth,” he shared. The reserve is “never talked about. It’s there. Why don’t we have, like a plan,” he added.
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 June 10th.
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).
11. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q1 2025: 75
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is a frequent feature of Cramer’s morning show. The fast food giant’s shares have lost 1.7% year-to-date primarily due to 5% since mid-June. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), like other food companies, is at the risk of its business being disrupted or shrunk due to GLP-1 drugs as they help users control their hunger. The shares fell in June after a downgrade from Redburn. Commenting on stock downgrades, Cramer outlined:
“[On a third downgrade based on a lower value proposition than before in case of a recession] They’re gonna be wrong. They are gonna be wrong. Okay Kempczinski is under fire because of the chicken strips and then next week we’ll all get chicken strips with the wraps. You want to see how ugly chicken strips are, they’re ugly, they don’t look like, I don’t know what they look like. . .but I know that Chris will kill that if it doesn’t sell . . . And people are really underrating Chris. He is a great CEO. McDonald’s has a history of getting rid of CEOs if they don’t work, getting rid of dishes if they don’t work.
“I think that McDonald’s is going to shrug off every one of these downgrades and you have to buy the stock. Because Kempczinski’s just not gonna sit there and say oh man these strips are bad but let’s just keep jamming them down the throat of franchisees. . .He watches the show, he’s saying hey man I don’t know, that’s the fourth downgrade. . . he’s smart, he’s not Oklo!”
Earlier, Cramer discussed Morgan Stanley and Loop Capital downgrading McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD)’s stock:
“It amazes me that analysts refuse to learn from their mistakes that some stocks should not be taken off the buy list. Today, Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock of McDonald’s, saying it’s arguably too expensive and that it will probably not be insulated from some structural pressures on fast food. Now, with the stock at 25 times earnings, consensus estimate’s too high. Morgan Stanley moved [it] to Equal Weight or Hold. [The] stock dropped $2 and 58 cents or 0.84% on that.
Now, it would not have made much of an impact on me if McDonald’s hadn’t also been downgraded by Loop Capital on Friday, again, concerned that it won’t beat the consensus numbers. Look, I understand the downgrades. Stock’s up 5%. It’s holding its own, but I think that in the long run, it has never paid to downgrade Mickey D’s. It’s the king. It offers good value and it’s incredibly well run…
The main thing Loop cites for what they think will be a shortfall is negative reaction to the new chicken strips launch… I say, wait a second, this is McDonald’s. Do you think this company is stupid? Do you think that CEO Chris Kempczinski doesn’t pay attention to these things? Do you think he ignores the franchises? Do you think he doesn’t know the product’s ugly? Do you think that he’ll bet everything on a product that people don’t like?
Listen, McDonald’s is an amazing company. It didn’t become amazing because it stuck with bad ideas… The strength of McDonald’s is that they don’t fight battles they can’t win. When something doesn’t work, they just dump it and they move on. Which is why I say you downgrade a stock like McDonald’s at your own peril.”
10. The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q1 2025: 37
The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) is a major American food products company. As has been the case with other food companies, such as Pepsi, investors are worried about the firm suffering in the aftermath of the GLP-1 wave in America. The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM)’s shares have lost 12.9% year-to-date primarily due to a disastrous 15.6% dip in June. The shares fell after the firm’s latest earnings report disappointed investors on the guidance front. The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) guided $9 in midpoint full-year earnings while analysts had penciled in $10.26. In his remarks, Cramer discussed an overlooked factor behind the earnings disaster:
“[After Faber pointed out the shares were down 6% and the firm had missed guidance] Yeah I didn’t really uh, that was quite opaque . . it’s not clear what it is. I’ll tell you what is clear. 980 million dollar impairment charge for Hostess Twinkies bought for 5.6 billion at the beginning of what is called GLP-1. I told them not to do it!”
The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM)’s management warned about tariffs in its latest earnings call. Here is what they said:
“As a domestic food producer, we are relatively less exposed to tariffs compared to other industries. That said, the current U.S. tariff impact on green coffee is our largest exposure that we will manage on top of navigating record-high costs for the commodity. Green coffee is an unavailable natural resource that cannot be grown in the continental U.S. due to its reliance on a tropical climate. We currently purchase approximately 500 million pounds of green coffee annually, with the majority coming from Brazil and Vietnam, the 2 largest coffee producing countries. Outside of coffee, the vast majority of our U.S. production is sourced domestically. However, there is some sourcing of finished goods and ingredients that are subject to tariffs as things stand today.
This has been factored into our outlook, and we are working to mitigate these cost increases through a combination of alternative sourcing strategies, supply chain optimization, and responsible pricing.”