On Mad Money, Jim Cramer recently delved into the impact of previous President Joe Biden’s policies on the stock market, raising a question that has been on the minds of many executives: Did the market perform well because of the administration, or in spite of it?
According to Cramer, one clear example of success despite the prior president’s policies can be seen in the oil sector. He pointed out that oil performed well even though Biden, who was vocal about his opposition to fossil fuels, is not a supporter of traditional energy sources.
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Cramer remarked that he himself had pushed back on the notion that the oil industry was doing poorly under Biden when speaking with oil executives. He noted that while the stocks of these companies had done reasonably well, the underlying issue was that there had been no meaningful communication between the president and fossil fuel industry leaders.
Cramer explained that Biden, who was a staunch advocate for renewable energy, essentially ignored dialogue with the oil sector, leaving executives without a chance to discuss their concerns.
“The oil company CEOs that I know wanted to plead their case, play ball, but they never got a chance. Instead, they got a kick in the teeth though almost one year ago when the president crushed the most viable portion of the complex, the liquified natural gas market, by putting a pause on new export decisions pending environmental review.”
Cramer also pointed to another major sector that saw gains in spite of the president’s policies: the banking industry. He shared that during his conversations with various bank CEOs, many of them took the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration, especially in terms of its tone and approach. While the banks performed well under Biden, Cramer noted that much of this success was despite the administration’s handling of financial regulations.
He explained that the lack of communication between the government and the business world had created an environment where many companies were hesitant to pursue mergers and acquisitions, which would have been profitable for shareholders. Instead of fostering productive discussions, the administration’s approach seemed to be to litigate first, without ever attempting to engage in meaningful dialogue. Cramer added:
“It had a very successful chilling effect on doing new deals, many of which would’ve made shareholders like you a great deal of money… The bankers wanted some degree of transparency about the new regulations that intruded endlessly on what they were doing. They wanted some sense of the real capital levels that the government wanted to see and they wanted a seat at the table when the president discussed business. Didn’t happen.”
Jim Cramer Looked At These 7 Stocks Recently
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 7 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episodes of Mad Money aired on January 17. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer Looked At These 7 Stocks Recently
7. Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 16
Cramer was asked about Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA) by a caller during the episode’s lightning round, and here’s what he said:
“You know, it’s very tough to tell what they really own and what they do. And I’ve gotta tell you that makes me very, very shy about it.”
Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) focuses on acquiring, developing, and managing premium commercial properties leased to the U.S. Government. For the third quarter of 2024, the company reported a net income of $5.1 million, or $0.05 per share on a fully diluted basis. The company’s Core Funds from Operations (FFO) for the quarter stood at $32.2 million, or $0.30 per share on a fully diluted basis. Looking ahead, the company provided its full-year 2024 guidance, estimating Core FFO per share in the range of $1.15 to $1.17 and net income per share on a fully diluted basis to be between $0.22 and $0.24.
For 2025, Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) projected Core FFO per share on a fully diluted basis to fall between $1.17 and $1.21, with net income per share expected to range from $0.24 to $0.28.
6. Sempra (NYSE:SRE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 33
Cramer emphasized that Sempra (NYSE:SRE) stock should be bought and praised the company’s CEO.
“I think Sempra is such a buy, I don’t even care that it only yields 3%. I think that, you know, like this is Jeff Martin, he’s bankable, bankable, bankable. I want you to own the stock.”
Sempra (NYSE:SRE) is an energy infrastructure firm that offers electric and natural gas services, oversees electricity transmission and distribution, and works on developing energy infrastructure. After the election results came out in November 2028, Cramer commented:
“I also like Sempra, which is a more diversified power company but has plenty of nat-gas exposure through regulated gas utilities in California, big nat-gas pipeline network that helps bring gas to Mexico. Can you believe that they need our natural gas after being so big in it? But they haven’t done any of the infrastructure. It’s also got a growing portfolio of LNG export facilities in both the US and Mexico. This is another name that’s broken out since the election, straight up actually, also up 15%. Now I would be a little more cautious. I’d buy some and then wait for it to come down.”
It should be noted that Sempra’s (NYSE:SRE) stock has gone down over 8% since the election in 2024.