Jim Cramer Discussed These 7 Stocks

4. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43

Cramer called Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) a “winner” and mentioned that changes in the FTC can prove to be beneficial for the company.

“Then after the close we hear from an outfit that you may not know, but I follow pretty close. It’s called Jefferies Financial Group. This stock’s been a total winner. Get this, it ran from $39 and change this time last year to $81 today. That is stellar.

I think the change at the FTC where the chief who’s ideologically opposed to big business is about to be replaced by someone with a more traditional approach will mean many, many, many, many, many more takeovers and that means very big earnings per share for Jefferies, which consults on these deals, I wanna hear about their outlook for 2025.”

Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) is an investment banking and capital markets firm offering a wide range of services while also managing diverse alternative asset management platforms across various investment strategies and asset classes. The company reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on January 8, which showed mixed results. It generated $1.96 billion in revenue, surpassing analysts’ expectations.

However, its diluted EPS came in slightly below predictions at $0.93. Despite this, the company posted a profit of $205.7 million for the quarter, more than tripling the $65.6 million earned during the same quarter the previous year. In its annual shareholder letter, the company highlighted a strengthened M&A pipeline with a higher probability of successful deals, an expanding IPO backlog, increased capital demand from both companies and private equity sponsors and higher trading volumes as the firm entered the new year.

In 2024, Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) played a key role in advising on several high-profile transactions, including the $26 billion merger between Diamondback Energy and Endeavour Energy, the $18 billion sale of SRS Distribution to The Home Depot, and the $5 billion sale of Darktrace.