We recently published a list of 8 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) stands against other stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar.
On Monday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, provided his analysis of the day’s market activity, highlighting that stocks had rebounded due to growing investor optimism that a clearer global trade outlook could be emerging.
“Declaring victory while you’re still playing is a dangerous game unless you’re President Trump. Today felt a lot like a declared victory…. The victory I’m talking about is a nonstop commitment by companies to building things here, things that otherwise wouldn’t be built here. You gotta admit that it’s pretty amazing.”
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Cramer also observed a shift in how companies now approach doing business in the U.S. He noted that companies now have a clear set of expectations to meet if they want access to American markets. As he put it, “They just gotta play ball with Trump and with our country,” following years of enjoying an unbalanced advantage.
According to Cramer, the stock market has always had a keen understanding of President Donald Trump since it recognized his determination to revive American manufacturing via tariffs, making it one of his main focuses.
“And now that we’re getting these announcements, he’s suddenly willing to be more targeted with his tariffs, declaring victory.”
In trying to understand why the shift is happening now, Cramer noted two main reasons. First, the April 2nd tariff deadline is fast approaching, which has spurred foreign companies to line up one by one to demonstrate their desire to maintain access to U.S. markets. Cramer noted that the companies know that to keep those doors open, they will need to be willing to make concessions. He then added:
“Second, Trump’s been listening. Now he’s seen executive after executive from American companies and he’s asked them what he can do to help their businesses do better. He doesn’t want to harm U.S. companies that hire here and expand here. He does want to harm those that don’t.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 24. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Cramer commented on Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) during the episode and said:
“They destroyed our industry, foreign companies did that ages ago and if you want to sell… to Walmart or Costco, maybe you have to pay the piper too and if he’s lucky, Trump will get China to build here in return for well nothing because they know that he has a vicious temper if you don’t play ball and it isn’t worth fight the guy.”
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) operates a membership-driven warehouse model, offering a variety of branded and private-label products in bulk at reduced prices, targeting customers looking for savings on larger purchases.
Aoris Investment Management stated the following regarding Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Firstly, I think we exercised good valuation discipline in our sales of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) and Cintas. The share prices of these two companies had increased by more than 60% and 40% respectively in the year prior to our sale. It can be difficult as investors to remain objective and not ‘fall in love’ with an investment when it is performing well. A higher share price doesn’t make a business more valuable!
We sold both Costco and Cintas simply for reasons of valuation. These are exceptional businesses that we’d love to own again if valuation permits. Their sales allowed us to recycle portfolio capital into more attractively valued businesses.”
Overall, COST ranks 6th on our list of stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar. While we acknowledge the potential of COST as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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