During the most recent episode of Mad Money, which aired on Friday, May 16th, Jim Cramer highlighted a sharp turnaround in market sentiment, noting how investors shifted from fear to renewed optimism over the past week:
“We often speak of moments when the stock market tends to do well…. We know that stocks thrive, for instance, when interest rates are going down but there’s another auspicious moment and that’s when the conventional wisdom collectively decides that because of extenuating circumstances, in this case, a welcome break from ever higher tariffs, we’re no longer at risk of a recession in the near future.”
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Cramer compared the change in investor mood to a jolt of energy for the market, just as powerful as a rate cut by the Fed. In his view, these rare moments when fear gives way to optimism often open the door to meaningful gains for those paying attention.
As he recapped the past week, Cramer called it a clear break from the gloom that’s dominated recent market narratives. With recession talk suddenly on pause, he said investors rushed back into economically sensitive stocks, transforming what began as caution into a full-blown buying spree.
“If hedge funds thought we were about to experience the apocalypse, and many of them did, then they were poorly positioned coming into this week. And when hedge funds are poorly positioned, you get incredibly motivated buyers like the ones we saw all week that help take us all the way…. And they may not be done with all of their buying, at least because we’re suddenly in a very different world with the pessimists having been caught with their pants down. Until they turn optimistic, which might take a little bit, we should remain in good shape.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 12 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the Mad Money episodes that aired between the 15th and 17th of May 2024. We then calculated their performance for the past 12 months, until May 16th, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.
Please note that this article mentions Jim Cramer’s previous opinions and may not account for any changes to his opinions regarding the stocks that are mentioned. It is primarily an examination of how his previously provided opinions have panned out.
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).
12. GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:GEHC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Back in 2024, on May 15, Mad Money’s Jim Cramer discussed GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:GEHC) as the first spinoff in GE’s transformation, noting its solid performance despite slower recent momentum.
“GE Health is up 46%. They both trounced the S&P 500, which is up 39% over the same period. Now, most of GE Healthcare’s gains came early on, and it’s more of a grind since then. It’s still mainly a grind higher. We have used some moments of weakness to buy some for the Charitable Trust.”
This one quietly slipped 10.06%, making Cramer’s optimism look misplaced in hindsight. GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:GEHC) has struggled to excite investors as margin pressure and slowing diagnostics growth weigh on sentiment.
However, Cramer recently admitted that he changed his course on the stock. Here’s what he replied to a caller on May 13:
“Okay, now you know, you’re a club member, you know I sold a lot in the high 80s and then gave up on the rest. The reason I did was because it’s inconsistent and too controlled by China, not America. So I am not going to be a backer. I am going to say the fabled [don’t buy, don’t buy, don’t buy].”
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