On Monday, April 14th, Jim Cramer opened the Mad Money episode with a striking observation on the dramatic change in market sentiment and what is going on in the markets right now, saying:
“If you told me this is where the market was headed two or three months ago, I would have thought you were insane, even crazier than I am. This radical transition over the past few weeks has just been frankly unfathomable. We’re now buying stocks we hated and we’re despising, and guess what we are now selling short the stocks that we used to worship. And it’s all happening on the fly. […] You can’t tell what’s underneath though but that makes it much easier for those real seekers who want to surf the Trump ‘stock wave’.”
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Cramer noted that the market’s rotation under the Trump administration has been profound, pushing investors to abandon old favorites in favor of new, domestically focused winners:
“We have to think about how to profit from this new market if it means making some pretty sharp changes to your portfolio and believe me this is something I think about every day for the club. […] See something happened this weekend that crystallized things for me. The Wall Street Journal put together this incredible chart of the stocks that are winning so far under the reign of Trump. Oh my! The extraordinary lack of economic sensitivity, the amazing America first nature of the businesses, the pure service nature of so many of these companies, they couldn’t be less like what we liked under President Biden. Rip up the old playbook; there’s a new stock sheriff in town so here’s what I did: I looked at the winners so far this year from the chart and thought about which ones were good to go, and which ones maybe needed to be demoted for a better substitute because perhaps they moved too far.”
The Mad Money host then outlined the common traits of the strongest performers and offered viewers a curated group of stocks he believes are worth buying now, saying:
“Look I’ve got no illusions after going over these companies I see several things the winners have in common. They don’t have a lot of competition, they’re largely domestic, they don’t need a strong economy, you can’t tariff them out of existence, they have scale, and most have fat margins […] Take advantage of this list. We will have down days. Keep the list handy, I’ll refer to it many times. It’s the right place to be, even in a recession, which again is a possibility given how stuck much of the economy really is right now.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 16 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 14. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 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’s List of 16 Stocks to Buy Right Now
16. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 150
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is the largest health insurance company in the U.S., offering a range of healthcare plans and services through its UnitedHealthcare and Optum segments. Healthcare insurance companies were the first companies in Cramer’s “buy” list, with UnitedHealth being one of his all-time favorites. He views UnitedHealth Group as particularly well-positioned to benefit from the Trump administration’s policies, especially given its scale and lack of regulatory headwinds. Here’s what he said:
“I want to begin with the obvious the health insurance companies and the drug middlemen. UnitedHealth reports this week, and it was down today. That’s a bit of a rarity in itself, and to me that makes for a terrific buying opportunity. I think the largest health insurer can do whatever it wants under this administration. Not making a judgment just telling you as it is.”
Jim Cramer is a big fan of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), as evident by his most recent comments during his appearance on Squawk on the Street. He voiced how high his expectations are for the stock’s upcoming earnings:
“Yeah, it’s a better than expected. It’s a much better than expected quarter, and I’m raising numbers. Well, that’s all they ever do. I’ve never seen them not. Maybe one quarter in the last 10 years. It’s an amazing company. I remember I was long it in 1989 and made my whole year. This thing was just a juggernaut from day one. Remember when they bought everybody too? Remember the consolidation? That was a really good thing for the industry. There’s an opportunity here.”
15. Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 73
Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) is a major player in the managed care space, providing Medicaid and Medicare plans to low-income individuals and families across the United States. In the context of this new “America First” market regime, Cramer named Centene as his second standout health coverage stock that aligns well with the administration’s domestic focus. Here are his thoughts:
“Next, I’ve been a fan of healthcare cover Centene for ages, CNC. Ever since the late Michael Neidorff used to come on the show to explain to me how his company could offer quality healthcare to a state’s populace, because it controls costs and knew how to treat certain illnesses and injuries in an efficient way. I like Centene, unless Congress really passes Medicaid cuts like the House Republicans are pushing for because running Medicaid plans is a sizable part of their business at Centene. They do it really well.”
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