In this piece, we will look at the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed.
In his latest appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer continued to comment on the DeepSeek fallout. He shared that while the performance of the Chinese AI model was impressive, especially as it had managed to match models such as OpenAI’s o1, there were other factors to consider particularly when gauging the demand for high-end Blackwell GPUs. These GPUs are made by Wall Street’s favorite AI GPU firm, and Cramer is increasingly starting to tilt towards the fact that their true magic might lie in enabling the proper functioning of humanoid robots.
As for the stock, the CNBC TV host continued to assert that there is a large chunk of traders that do not properly understand the company. Cramer shared “I was in a bar last week, person to the right said I bought [the GPU stock] because of you. A person left said I bought [the GPU stock] cause of you.” He added that in response he asked does “anyone know what [the GPU stock] does?” Yet, instead of outlining the firm’s business model, “They said yeah! It’s something that you recommend!” he added.
While the GPU company might have lost close to $600 billion in value during the selloff, another AI news caught Cramer’s attention. This was a Reuters report that claimed that OpenAI was seeking to raise $40 billion in capital on a $400 billion valuation. When asked how such valuation was possible, particularly after Monday’s havoc, Cramer replied “So I was just being like you. It is, without a doubt, a time not of inflation, but of a recognition.” He added that this ‘recognition’ is why he likes the GPU firm as well. So what is the recognition that’s got Cramer enamored? Well, according to him “it’s a recognition that it is a new industrial revolution. And anybody who’s in it is a worth lot more than the people that aren’t!”
He also sardonically targeted co-host David Faber and said “Look I’m sure that when they discovered the cotton gin, and you’re a weaver, you’re saying you know what, that’s ridiculous!” Not satisfied, Cramer continued “Remember the steam engine? Are you still liking the wheel and the pulley? Are you the wedge? You’re the wedge!”
Cramer also commented on the market moving higher during the day after the week’s devastation. He mentioned a couple of non-tech sectors that had particularly done well. In his words:
“I was surprised that there were a lot of areas yesterday that were very very good. And people were very focused obviously, on DeepSeek, but then there was a whole another group people were saying, you know what, healthcare really back. Uh, industrials. I’m looking at industrials, there’s something from [an industrial firm providing motion control products] yesterday that was really fabulous.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on January 31st.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
10. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 72
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is an American media giant that operates in the production, broadcasting, and internet markets. The age of the Internet which has shifted users away from traditional media to online platforms has impacted the firm. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)’s shares are down by 28% over the past year as the firm has continued to lose subscribers. The trend continued in Q4 2024 after the firm’s financial results saw it lose 139,000 broadband subscribers to outpace estimates of 91,000. Cramer’s comments for the stock were for its P/E multiple:
“It’s the ninth lowest PE of the S&P 500. . .and the other eight are so terrible, I really struggle to be the ninth, I don’t like to be in the 451st place. You don’t make the playoffs. You’re not in the playoffs.”
“The other eight companies have no earnings whatsoever.”
“I took it off my screen.”
9. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 76
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is a multimedia and entertainment giant that appears to be holding up against the industry trend of losing share to internet platforms. It’s a regular feature on Cramer’s show, as he has expressed optimism in the firm’s CEO Bog Iger’s turnaround strategy. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)’s streaming division profit turned a profit for the first time in Q3 2024 and it also appears to have reduced losses in its cable platforms. Cramer is optimistic about the firm’s upcoming earnings:
“Disney, interesting piece. JPMorgan says nothing good but keeps as a buy. But at least quantifies what the fires have done. You know I’m a big believer in Disney going into the quarter.”
8. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 86
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is one of the largest oil companies in the world. Its shares are up by a modest 3.91% over the past year due to multiple factors such as low natural gas prices that plagued the American industry in 2024. The stock is flat this year as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) lost all gains made after its fourth-quarter earnings saw its gas and diesel earnings drop to a stunning $323 million from the year-ago figure of $3.2 billion. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)’s shares tumbled by 2.5% following the earnings. Cramer maintained his muted stance about the firm:
“I think that people feel that Exxon is, it’s kind of like they’ve got the rosy hue ever since . . . . It’s almost like they’re considered to be the fast moving darling that understands carbon capture.”
“[on how XOM had performed well over the last few years] No, I’m just surprised. I thought it would reverse, I said that I’m wrong but I know that you’re not going to get hurt in. But that’s no reason to buy the stock.”
7. GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 95
GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) is a spinoff from the former industrial conglomerate General Electric. It makes and sells aircraft engines and other aircraft systems. Its shares have gained 92% over the past year as GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) has benefited from Boeing’s production woes to cater to airlines’ need to use existing fleets for longer. Cramer has mentioned the stock several times this year. His comments have praised GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE)’s CEO Larry Colt, particularly after the firm guided double-digit EPS and revenue growth for 2025. His latest remarks continued this trend:
“When you get Larry Culp you do not turn into the 491st lowest PE multiple [referring to CMCSA’s multiple]. . .I think talking about a person who is one of the greatest CEOs ever.
“The humility of the man is shocking. I mean I said listen this GE Vernova what are you kidding me? No I want you to stick with me, it’ll be fine. But if you’re worried, I understand. I mean he carries himself like Andy Reid. Having met coach Reed a lot. He is not a single bone of, he’s not buoyant about himself, he’s not arrogant about himself. He’s just simply a real good guy.”
6. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 106
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is one of the most commonly discussed stocks on Cramer’s morning show. He interviewed the firm’s CEO David Ricks at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, and despite tepid financial performance, remains a fan of the stock. Cramer believes that not only are Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)’s weight loss drugs better than rival Novo’s, but that the firm’s narrative in 2025 will also be shaped by drugs under development. His latest remarks also reflected this theme:
“One of the reasons you back out the dollar and you suddenly see some growth, uh, look I’m surprised that with the Mondelez, with some of these we stopped talking about GLP-1, and yet, Lilly’s doing quite well. The stock has been going up. I think there’s a bunch of new use cases coming up and there’s more, well it’s down today, but there’s more Mounjaro in the system. So you don’t just get directed to Wegovy by the doctors.”
“Well there’s so many, when I spoke with David Ricks whose the CEO, the number of trials going on, is shocking because it just seems to do so many different things that are good. I think that the pre-diabetes and pre-Alzheimer’s are going, the two I’m focused on now. I was focused on the heavy drinking one. People don’t talk about that but after we saw what the previous President’s Surgeon General was saying, which was the skull and crossbones on liquor, I mean heavy drinking’s going to be something you better get it under control. Look I’m waiting for the Humana’s of the world to say look if you drink heavily we’re not going to cover you.”
5. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 158
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) is one of the most consequential firms in the semiconductor industry. It is one of two leading edge contract chip manufacturers in the world and is the market leader in terms of product quality. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)’s latest manufacturing processes are used by all of the world’s biggest chip manufacturers. In his previous remarks about the firm, Cramer shared that even if lower AI costs mean more GPUs, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) will nevertheless benefit from greater demand. His latest remarks were more telling, particularly in the context of the DeepSeek selloff:
“Actually Taiwan Semi’s really diverged from NVIDIA big time. And Taiwan Semi’s putting a lot of orders.”
4. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 158
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a household name known primarily for its iPhone smartphones. Cramer started his show by commenting on the firm in detail especially since he had spent most of his previous shows asserting that the market had expected Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) to perform poorly in its latest earnings. However, the firm’s $124.3 billion in revenue and $2.40 in EPS beat analyst estimates of $124.12 billion and $2.35, respectively. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) also signaled a recovery in China, and here is what Cramer said:
“I do think that the best news that I felt was that where they have their Apple Intelligence. Their AI. Sales are up. Not, they don’t have it in China, and look they need a partner in China. We know that Xiaomi, Huawei they can have partners, they can use DeepSeek for all we know. But it does matter that when they have AI, things go better because then you don’t have to guide down the next quarter or two. And people felt that the big issue would be the forecast cut. There was no forecast cut. David, this installed base, 1.38 billion users, and you know, just phone users, 2.35 active devices, this is what everyone knows is their ace in the hole. And everybody keeps, the hedge funds keep thinking what’s the next iteration of the phone doing. And Tim cook is thinking, we have a lot of people who will buy more of our things. Whether it be service or whether it be the different parts that we all know, Mac, the earbuds. You know, by the way, um, the watch is crushing it.”
“They’re doing -1.7 on the watch. I’m regarding the watch. The watch is high gross margin, it’s health, anything health is doing well.”
“They’re [the analysts] saying it’s [the watch] bad, but when I talked to Tim Cook it was not at all clear that it was bad. I’m saying that’s the one everyone is worried about. And Tim Cook is not saying it’s bad. He’s saying healthcare is very strong.”
“Well, the data’s the data [on watch sales dropping].”
“You know, and, Tim Cook has got, is he Teflon? . . I think what is is he’s got the best product and I still think it’s a best product win situation.”
“I was trying to get Tim Cook to say in our interview that I do with Steve. . .that isn’t it true that we no longer just going uh newline, newline, newline and judging it, and that we’re actually blurring it by having these constant updates that you get overnight. And he said, no, no, there’s still going to be, it still matters tremendously. The 16 matters. The family of 16 matters. So there was nothing revelatory other than the fact that was fine. And everyone expected it to be not fine. And that, I think is because, AI is a spurt to buy more phones. And that, no one thought that. I think people just felt their AI is so so. But it’s not. AI, of course, they’re not paying for so it’s really a free ride that’s fabulous. Gross margins were up nicely.”
“[On whether analysts will change their downward revisions] I think that there’s too many people, who would, they have to do it quietly. They’ll look too stupid.”
“[On a high multiple] But I think look he’s talking about, Tim’s talking about India. I mean India is a real factor. I’m not saying that China is not. He’s never going to say that. But I think that lets say right now it came out. . . that Baidu has teamed up with Apple for the best AI. Then the people who are still shorted are betting against it they’re going to say alright I’ve had enough and then I think that the negative guys will have to come out. Right now they can say, you know what, it’s still got a very high multiple. And it’s thirty multiple and that’s really not what you get when you have this little growth. They say pretty much what this man to the left says. . . .How long does it have to be high before we just say you know what, maybe it’s better than Clorox. Maybe it’s better than Colgate. Maybe it’s better than Hershey.”
3. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 193
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the stock that the media just can’t stop talking about. Its GPUs are powering the AI wave, and the stock dropped by 17% during the DeepSeek Selloff on Monday. Cramer believes that it’s important to watch whether NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s orders will fall, and he adds that the firm’s latest Blackwell chips are also geared towards ushering in a new industrial revolution through humanoid robots. His latest remarks surrounded GPU export controls:
“I think that the white house is actually a little less hard-line than people think. I think that the White House wants to hear, the White House is trying to figure out, did DeepSeek get a hundred thousand high-end chips from Singapore. And I posted yesterday on X, absolutely not. That there’s just no evidence whatsoever to NVIDIA that they diverted them from Singapore. I think that they’re in a jam. If they say, look, the reason why DeepSeek really, they had access to a hundred thousand, it’s not like they made. . .okay I’ve got an analogy for you. So you have a juicer, that can make ten glasses of orange juice out of an apple . . .out of an orange, that’s what Jensen is doing. They can make ten glasses of orange juice out of one. Or, you can make, you have ten juicers and you just get one glass. So do you really need to pay for ten juicers? You can just buy DeepSeek’s juicer. And that’s the worry.”
“Yes but that matters tremendously. Right so I mean look you want to play jeopardy. I don’t want it to play, I don’t want it to be, it plays a great game of checkers. Bit NVIDIA is a grand master. Kasparov. Remember? Grand maestro. That’s who NVIDIA is. Grandmaster. And the President is going to like him. And I think that they’re going to come out and he’s gonna say, whatever is good for NVIDIA, is good for America.”
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 279
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a software firm that can’t seem to catch a break. Its shares lost 3.7% during the second half of 2024, and they have maintained the downward trend this year as the stock is down by 0.84% year-to-date. Most of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s troubles stem from weakness in its cloud computing business and tepid growth numbers in its latest earnings led the stock to drop by 6% afterward. However, some quarters believe that while Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s AI cloud is performing well, it’s the broader weakness that’s driving the stock. Cramer, on the other hand, is concerned with the firm’s valuation:
“No, but when I look at Microsoft, I say do I wanna be in Microsoft where I don’t get upside? Or do I want to be in Apple where I sense I can make a curve which says this service stream could really explode and India is going to be gigantic.”
1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 286
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the cloud computing and eCommerce giant that depends on eCommerce sales growth and robust cloud margins for its performance. The firm’s shares gained 1% during the DeepSeek selloff, and potentially lower AI training costs also open up interesting possibilities for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Lower costs mean that the firm might not have to fork out large sums to maintain its AI platforms, and less stringent performance might allow it to use more in-house chips for AI computing. Here’s what Cramer said about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN):
“Unbelievable. I’m almost close to concern that when Amazon reports they say you know what, we are going to slow NVIDIA. Or we’re going to go to AMD which they’re not using for this kind of thing. I think that they’re going to stay with their friendly relationship with, with Jensen. But that’s what the bears are telling me.”
AMZN is a stock Jim Cramer recently talked about. While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN 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 AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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