In this piece, we will look at the stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.
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).
10. CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock (NASDAQ:CRWV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 0 (Due To IPO in Q1 2025)
CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock (NASDAQ:CRWV) is a cloud platform provider that provides equipment for AI and other computing purposes. It is the first IPO in 2025, and the shares have lost 12.9% since they started trading. Cramer has discussed CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock (NASDAQ:CRWV) in detail previously. He has wondered whether the firm’s GPUs will hold their value after depreciation and dismissed reports that it was created by NVIDIA to create GPU demand. Here are his latest thoughts about CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock (NASDAQ:CRWV):
“CoreWeave, if you look at what CoreWeave’s doing, a lot of it is with OpenAI.”
9. Chagee Holdings Limited American Depositary Shares (NASDAQ:CHA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 0 (Due To IPO in Q1 2025)
Chagee Holdings Limited American Depositary Shares (NASDAQ:CHA)’s shares IPO’d on the day this program was aired. The firm is a Chinese tea company that operates teahouses and sells associated products. Since the listing, the stock has lost 6% as it gets caught up in the market turmoil surrounding the trade war between the US and China. As the shares started trading at the opening bell, here’s what Cramer said about Chagee Holdings Limited American Depositary Shares (NASDAQ:CHA):
“We give them Jensen Huang, what do they give us? I’ll pick Jensen over Chagee any day.”
8. KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 43
KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) is an American regional bank that offers commercial and consumer banking services. Its shares have lost 18% year-to-date as they suffered during April’s tariff-induced stock market selloff. KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY)’s shares dipped by 12% on April 2nd and have yet to recover the losses. In his previous comments about the stock, Cramer said that he liked the stock because of its dividend. Here are his latest thoughts:
“You know I had KEY on. KEY has had an important anniversary, in you know like two hundred years. There’s only fifty companies that have two hundred years in business. And yet it yields 5.65 and they’re doing very, very well. Ohio is doing incredibly well as a state in terms of where people are putting, they’re putting a lot of data center-like things in Ohio. Of course Microsoft, being the only monkey wrench in the process.”
7. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 46
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) is a struggling pharmacy retailer whose shares are among the worst performers on the market. The stock has lost 40% over the past year and trimmed the losses by gaining 15% year-to-date. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)’s recent share price performance is due to the confirmation of the firm going private. Cramer believes there’s pain ahead for the firm’s operations:
“CVS is the star right now. And CVS of course you have to believe that there’s going to be a mass closing of Walgreens. Because they’ve got, Sycamore’s got the clock ticking on that one.”
6. CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 63
CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) is one of the largest railroad companies in America with operations in the US and Canada. Its shares have lost 15% year-to-date after having dipped by 10% during the days after President Trump’s tariffs came into effect on April 2nd. Here is what Cramer said about CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX):
“You guys have CSX, Joseph Hinrichs, coming up, and, sometimes, with railroads so many things could go wrong, in infrastructure . . they have a . . .tunnel they have to worry about. And people are willing to forgive today. Because, Joe, the CEO, he’s going to be very repentant. He didn’t think he did a good job. And that the stock’s up. There is a bias today. Towards saying that things are a little bit better. This is not a bad day. . . So there is an element of forgiveness today that I want to note for the companies that are reporting.”
5. Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 64
Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) is a Canadian eCommerce company that allows merchants and retailers to sell their products and launch and operate digital storefronts. Its shares are down by 25% year-to-date with the selloff accelerating since the April 2nd tariff-induced stock market selloff. In his recent remarks about Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP), Cramer has called the stock a winner and advised viewers against not trading them. Here are his latest thoughts:
“It’s very, it’s very confusing to think here what’s going on with De Minimis. Moffett Nathanson’s piece is very very bad for Shopify. All I can tell you is this that De Minimis will sort itself out, and I would not. . . “
4. Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 64
Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) is one of the largest healthcare insurance and benefits providers in America. Its sector was a key theme in Cramer’s show as he commented on healthcare giant UnitedHealth’s stunning earnings that sent the shares down by 17.4%. The CNBC host wondered whether the poor earnings were a firm-specific factor for UNH and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) factored into the discussion:
“Humana already went through this. So Humana’s getting hammered. I thought Humana bounced back. I’m not saying anything’s isolated. Because as soon as you . . .there’s going to be some sort of well cockroach theory.”
3. Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 71
Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) is a fintech company that offers payment processing and issuer solutions. As a result, the firm’s shares are dependent on overall economic performance as it leads to higher transaction volumes on its platform. Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN)’s shares have lost a whopping 40.6% year-to-date and have lost 33% since the April tariff selloff. The most recent dip in the shares came after investors fled the stock as it announced an acquisition that muddied its turnaround expectations. Here’s what Cramer said the day the shares fell:
“People should know that it’s PayPal, Stripe, Square, all against them. And I think that these guys could be very powerful versus those. . . . Maybe this is against Stripe.”
2. 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.”
1. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 74
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is a mega-American pharmacy chain operator. It has benefited due to the trouble that its peer Walgreens has faced for more than a year. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)’s shares are up by 47% year-to-date, and Cramer’s previous remarks about the firm have pointed out that its Aetna division is benefiting from Walgreens’ troubles. As UNH stock tumbled, here’s what Cramer said about CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS):
[UNH taking the year down 12% when it came to EPS] [CVS] “I checked in with CVS, with Aetna, they reiterated recently. They said everything was fine. . . I was just looking at the statement, I’m saying, wow, totally contrary. This is so unlike UNH.”
[CVS-on managed care companies suffering from seniors using more than they thought] “Some people feel Karen Lynch lost her job for that, because she was from that division. . CVS. In retrospect, how bad was she really?”
“[On how folks were hiding in the stocks during the tariff havoc] Oh yeah, no, I wanted to hide. I was talking about it in my, in my club call yesterday. I said listen we gotta find a place to hide in this group. I’ve been inclined to do CVS because CVS is in a situation where they’re gonna close so many Walgreens. There’s so many. . .closed that they’re the last ones standing. Now they didn’t really like that characterization. They said listen, they’re the best. And I don’t mind saying that because I think CVS is the best. But wow, you gotta pivot here.”
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