Jim Cramer Discussed These 29 Stocks Ahead Of Major AI Event

6. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 86

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a global pharmaceutical company with a key presence in the specialty pharma market. Some of its best-known products are the KEYTRUDA cancer vaccine and its HPV vaccine GARDASIL. GARDASIL’s importance to the share price and hypothesis was clear in July 2024 when Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s shares fell by 9.8% following the firm’s second-quarter earnings. The results saw the HPV-cancer medicine’s sales drop in China which led to its overall $2.48 billion in sales missing analyst estimates of $2.53 billion. Here is what Cramer said:

“So let’s keep track of the healthcare stocks, a lot of that is IRA. JNJ fighting this tooth and nail. Merck having a total multiple collapse. These are great American companies. But they are not trading like that. They are trading as value traps. I’d question how long that can go on, but I recognize we’ll know at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.”