In this article, we will take a detailed look at the 10 Stocks Analysts are Talking About Amid Trump’s Tariff War.
Markets saw some glimmer of hope as President Donald Trump indicated that he does not plan to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and showed openness to engage in talks with China. However, China has said in a statement that the US should dial back all unilateral duties if it’s serious in negotiations.
Andrew Slimmon, Morgan Stanley Investment Management senior portfolio manager, explained in a recent program on CNBC what made Trump blink:
“I think…April 9th was an important day because on that day Trump came out and said I didn’t like what I saw in the bond market, I didn’t like Jamie Diamon saying there’s a recession coming and he said “So I’m putting a 90-day pause on.” So in my opinion, what he really said is tariffs are important to me but a recession’s worse and so there’s the priority which he basically gave you the indication there is a Trump put out there. I don’t think it’s down 10 15 but it was when the market was almost down 20 right, credit spread started to quake.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In
For this article, we picked 10 stocks Wall Street is talking about these days. With each stock, we have 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. Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 41
Jim Cramer in a latest program said he likes Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR).
“Defense is working again. I don’t know. It shouldn’t be given the pullback from Ukraine, right? But I sense maybe we’re embarking on a real buildup as tensions heat up with China. I like the permanently favored Palantir, arguably the number one meme stock of all time, with the CEO who whips people into a frenzy.””
Baron Asset Fund stated the following regarding Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Two software stocks that the Fund did not own, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) and AppLovin Corporation, each gained more than 100% and accounted for 52% of the Benchmark’s gain during the quarter. At year end 2024, Palantir was valued at approximately 200 times its expected 2024 earnings, while AppLovin was valued at 80 times. The market cap of each exceeded $100 billion, and the two stocks represented nearly 8% of the Index. Neither company met our criteria for investment. The total impact on relative performance from Palantir and AppLovin was about 7 times higher than we have seen historically for two securities that are unique to the Benchmark, showing just how unparalleled the event was and something that we believe is unlikely to be repeated.”
9. PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 58
Jim Cramer in a recent program on CNBC discussed a latest research report on PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP), which talked about the impact of rising snack prices on the company:
“There’s a piece of research today that is emblematic of what makes this market so hard. So out of nowhere, Bank of America, which has been a staunch supporter of PepsiCo, downgrades it. Basically says snacks are too expensive. They’re losing share in beverages. David, when I read this, I said, “This is the kind of thing that I’m most concerned about. These food companies have raised price, raised price, raised price, and then in the interim it got too expensive.” And they talk about the convenience store and working-class people who can’t afford to get to buy things. Because there is just so much you can do in terms of cost cutting. So I—I found that Ramon Laguarta if he read this, he would say, “I got to get this thing.” But the only way you can get more is to cut twice.”
8. Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 74
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC said he likes Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) and thinks the company will have a strong second half of the year.
“CrowdStrike is a horse. One year after it had a computer glitch, not a hack, that shut down millions of computers across the globe, it’s coming back incredibly strong. CEO George Kurtz hates to lose, and his worldwide apology tour to grieve customers saved a lot of business and may even bring about more business than he had. You can bet that the second half of the year is going to be very strong for this stock.”
TimesSquare Capital Management U.S. Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Among the wide variety of Information Technology companies, we prefer critical system providers, specialized component designers, systems that improve productivity or efficiency for their clients, and others that are growing their shares of corporate IT budgets. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cybersecurity solutions. Its unified platform offers cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The company delivered solid fiscal third quarter results that exceeded the high end of guidance and boosted its share price by 22%. Notably, there was resilient gross revenue retention that highlights CrowdStrike’s best in class product offering. New business win rates remained consistent and trending upwards. Following its mid-July outage, many customers have upgraded to the Falcon Flex program, which enables them to adopt a broader product offering.”
7. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 81
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC recommended investors to buy Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). Here is how Cramer made the bull case for the stock:
“One thing is they do have the most domestic manufacturing, so if you do believe there’ll be a hit, they’re not going to get the hit proportionally. J&J is still one of the great premier developers of fantastic drugs. It’s got a—it sells at 14 times earnings. I believe that its talc problems are now behind it because they’re going to take them one by one. They’ve only lost one case. What a great opportunity to buy a great, great American company.”
6. UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 112
Ahead of UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) earnings report, Jim Cramer talked about the company and said it can do “whatever it wants” under the current US administration. Cramer called the decline in the stock a buying opportunity.
“United Health 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.”
UNH shares plunged after the company reported results that missed Wall Street estimates and decreased its guidance at the midpoint amid higher care activity. However, the bulls believe it’s a buying opportunity. The long-term drivers for the stock and balance sheet of the company remain strong. Due to the recent pullback, the stock’s forward P/E ratio is now the sector average of roughly 16. Another key measure is the FWD P/CF, which is nearly 25% lower than the sector average.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We sold two Health Care positions during the quarter, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and insurerUnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). UnitedHealth’s business model is becoming higher-risk, which coupled with slowing Medicare Advantage growth and regulatory uncertainty led to us exiting the position.
After the UnitedHealth stock price recovered to its historical multiple in early November, we felt it was an opportune time to sell based on our concerns about slowing Medicare Advantage growth and the company’s growing business complexity and risk.”
5. Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 121
Josh Brown, CEO at Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a latest program on CNBC that he’s buying Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares because the company has shown resilience in the current bear market.
“It’s been a remarkable name in the tape this year. It’s only 8% below a 52-week high. The median communication stock is 17% below the 52-week high. RSI is still 58. So in a market where almost everything’s got a relative strength right now of like 40s, 50s—nothing special—this stock stands apart from almost everything else. There’s a piece in the Journal that I think everyone should read about the discussion taking place at Netflix’s annual business review meeting. They’re talking about literally doubling revenue by the year 2030, which is only 5 years away, and they’re talking about joining the $1 trillion market cap club. Market cap right now is about 400 billion. I think that this is the most defensible technology company, almost to the point where it’s a—it’s a consumer defensive stock.”
Harding Loevner Global Developed Markets Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we benefited from strong stocks within the Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary sectors. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) was our top relative contributor; the company provided a favorable outlook for subscriber growth in 2025 and made progress in two key areas, live TV and advertising. The streaming service broadcast its first sporting events, including two National Football League games on Christmas, and said that the ad-supported plan it launched two years ago amassed 70 million subscribers, more than investors expected.”
