We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Discusses These 12 Stocks & Trump DOJ’s Action Against Health Insurance Companies. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer Discusses with insights on Trump DOJ’s action against health insurance companies.
In his recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer commented on a report in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice was aiming to take on one of the largest healthcare insurers in America. While the firm’s shares dropped by 11% on the news, Cramer remained skeptical.
He started out by commenting that “the government has historically not been able to take on this group. They haven’t really taken on the middle-man either. Look I mean we have strong corporations in our country.” Cramer believes that instead of suing the firm, a better approach would be legislation.
“You’re gonna need legislation,” he outlined. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to do anything with the Justice Department,” believes Cramer. He added that “when you have these lawsuits it tends not to bring about any sort of practice. Look, I’m not being cynical. I know that there are people that just say how can you not, how can you not think that this is gonna break up everything?”
While President Trump’s bellicose approach with his administration has turned heads, Cramer shared that little will change at the Justice Department. According to him: “I think that this DOJ is like other DOJs, they’re just not powerful enough to take these companies on. They lose.”
As an example, Cramer pointed to the government’s lawsuits against opioid companies. He shared that while the companies “ended up having to pay,” they were able to continue operating as “nobody got shut down, nobody went to jail, nobody, again this is civil.” Subsequently, Cramer wondered whether “there are certain, companies in the healthcare industry that continue to win, and win, and win. And the initial reaction tends to be an overreaction.”
When told about Bill Ackman’s comments about avoiding the healthcare benefits stock stock and that it was a mental short, he commented:
“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.”
Cramer added: “The Justice Department doesn’t do it. . . .Look at what happened to Microsoft, every time the Justice Department really gears up, doesn’t work. Doesn’t change things.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down all the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on February 21st.
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).
An aerial view of a luxurious cruise ship, surrounded by the blue horizon.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 58
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) is the penultimate cruise ship stock on our list. Like its industry peers, the firm has benefited from the growth in demand for cruise holidays by Americans. In his previous remarks, Cramer explained that a softer dollar and pent-up pandemic demand drove cruise stocks up to create value at a price. Over the past year, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL)’s shares have gained 92% to make them a standout in the sector. Like its peers, they also dropped in February following worries about the Trump administration’s potential to end tax exemptions for the sector. Here’s what Cramer said:
“Kind of shocking to say, one of the greatest groups in this market has been the cruise lines. It has just become, remarkable comeback, and this is the long on money, short on time. Meaning, let’s find the bar again and travel. . . These all got clocked. Why? Because Howard Lutnick, the new Commerce Secretary said that President Trump might wanna be able to get rid of the, their inability to pay tax. They don’t pay tax. Again, what I keep referring to is, Congress passed an actual codified section . . . saying that their income is not taxable! So you know, you need to get Congress to check off. Now, Citi in its note does say to make these changes we believe President Trump would need to focus on the cruise industry. But I’m implying that if the President does focus, then it gets rid of Congress. Now, look, maybe I’m outmoded. I have been focused on Congress cause that’s the way our country has, since, I don’t know, like Jefferson. But everything’s new! This needs Congressional approval. I don’t know how else he can do it!”
Overall, RCL ranks 4th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer Discusses with insights on Trump DOJ’s action against health insurance companies. While we acknowledge the potential of RCL 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than RCL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.