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 commented on today’s inflation release which saw inflation drop for the second time in a month for the first time since 2020. Cramer shared that markets were unmoved by the release since the tariff narrative and a potential recession was the dominant theme driving their performance. According to him:
“Yeah look I think that if you had gotten this number not long ago before the tariff ruckus you would say you know what the Fed is really got an opportunity with the consumer slowing down to cut. And it’s probably gonna be on tap. But because things are so convoluted, and we keep reading these articles about how scared everybody is, I think you can scare people into. . .we’re taking it as if it’s not significant. It’s incredibly significant. And I think that the President doesn’t make it easier. Because there’s just news constantly and you get a very inflationary thing that was just mentioned about. Wine and champagne. But these numbers are very calm. And they should make us calm. But we’re anything but.”
He also lamented that negativity and pessimism were driving the market. Cramer urged viewers to not look too much into negativity. “I warn people that I can very easily make a positive call on almost everything that’s being called negative,” he outlined. This ‘negativity’ according to Cramer is in consumer behavior. Sharing his takeaways from comments from two of America’s biggest retailers, he opined: “[T]he consumer’s actually paying a little more attention. To what they buy. And that maybe they’re trying to stretch their dollars a little more.”
Yet, despite the negative reports, Cramer believes that consumers aren’t fearful. Instead, he believes:
“I think the consumer is somewhat more stretched. But it’s not so different but people want, let’s just be a little, I’m gonna be a little, out there. . .But I think you can phrase these questions in a way that makes people nervous. And it makes people feel like the wrong answer is to say no, the consumer’s still on fire. Because I don’t think the consumer’s really, really crushed here. I don’t think the consumer is really happy. I think the consumer is confused and baffled. Like many of us.”
The CNBC TV host also shared his thoughts on a recent note that called the American economy a wait-and-see economy. According to him:
“Right and I think that’s very good. I’ve been working all morning on the tariff. On the possibility of the 200% tariff. I’m in the liquor business, my wife’s in the liquor business. Really good handle on, on Mexico and the tariff and where it’s placed to bring agave. And you know, if you just work on what’s going on with champagne, it’s actually devastating to people who are buyers of expensive champagne. Because it’s about a thirty to forty percent shelf price increase. Well that would be, 200% tariff would roughly double the shelf price. 200% double the shelf price. . . so it’s pretty punitive. And I think you should be saying, well wait a second, I’m gonna switch to Flint Michigan champagne or something.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down all the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on March 13th.
For these stocks, we also 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).
13. Kohls Corp (NYSE:KSS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 26
Kohls Corp (NYSE:KSS) is an embattled retailer whose shares have lost 41% year-to-date. The losses are on the back of a massive 24% dip in March which followed the firm’s same-store sales and fourth-quarter revenue dropping. Kohls Corp (NYSE:KSS)’s shares weren’t helped by the fact that the firm also announced that it would cut its dividend to 12.5 cents from 50 cents to control its costs. In his previous remarks, Cramer has given up faith in the company. He believes that the firm is facing structural problems that its sales drop might be too steep to recover from. This time around, he commented on Kohls Corp (NYSE:KSS) in the context of bonds:
“Well I mean look. You have outfits like Kohl’s. Okay. And Kohl’s is a big outfit. But when you read the same store, you get that same store going down six. Well if you’re a bond holder you gotta say well wait a second, that’s, I gotta lay that off. So you know you’ve got some bad sales reports. And a bad sales report, particularly in retail, is something you gotta run from.”
12. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 33
American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) is an American apparel and personal care products retailer known for its American Eagle brand of goods. The shares haven’t performed well lately as they have lost 52% over the past year and are down by 35% year-to-date. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO)’s stock has struggled due to several pessimistic earnings reports which have warned of a sales slowdown. Cramer, though, commented that the market might be too focused on negativity:
“There’s this outfit American Eagle Outfitters, AEO, and when you read the comment today, you would, the commentary from the analyst, it’s just a disaster. If you read the actual conference call, almost everything is really great. But you can easily pull lines.”