We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Questions Market Logic and Dissects These 7 Key Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.
In his latest appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer unpacked the deepening uncertainty gripping both markets and politics as investors brace for higher inflation, elevated yields, and an unpredictable White House. With bond yields climbing and tariffs expanding across sectors, Cramer highlighted just how fragile investor conviction has become:
[talking about rising bond yields on 10Y treasuries] “You have a lot of people who say, you know what, I’ve got to revisit everything because of the inflationary nature. Maybe I have to buy them at 5-6%. Now, the reason I say that is because I think when the average person looks at the huge inflation that’s coming, they can’t think of a reason to buy bonds. And that’s where I’m stuck. Why would I buy that piece of paper? I mean, if the Japanese are selling that piece of paper and the Chinese are selling that piece of paper, why am I buying that piece of paper? And the answer is, I’m not. Let’s wait. A lot of things are ‘let’s wait’ in the bond market. In the stock market, there’s people taking action every minute on craziness.”
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Says Tariff Pain Isn’t Over Yet And Reviews These 9 Stocks and Jim Cramer Calls Market Decline ‘Man-Made’ and Breaks Down 15 Stocks.
He also emphasized the sheer weight of presidential authority in shaping market sentiment, warning that Main Street rhetoric alone won’t shield investors from the fallout:
“The president is very powerful right now. Immensely powerful. More powerful than ever in my life. It would be amazing if the president said, you know what, we’re done for now. We’re done. But he came out and said, now it’s pharma’s turn. So as long as this keeps up, and he said he doesn’t care about Wall Street, he cares about Main Street. At a certain point, if you care about Main Street, then you do actually care about the 401k.”
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 April 9th.
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).
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 98
Amid fears of broad-brush pharmaceutical tariffs, Jim Cramer defended Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) as an unjustified casualty in the market sell-off, pointing to its minimal import exposure and pristine balance sheet. Here’s his exact analysis:
“Well, we have a $350 billion company, J&J, a AAA balance sheet. The stock is down $5.30 on the president saying that we’re going to hit the pharmaceuticals. Now, once again, we’ve got the meat axe approach. J&J imports the least of the major pharma. Should they be down as much or more as the most? And what would happen if the president said, you know what, we’re going to start thinking making Commerce Department exceptions. We’re not going to hit U.S. companies as much as we’re going to hit foreign. Should AstraZeneca and J&J both be tariffed at the same price? Right now, we just make these decisions, and we don’t distinguish among companies because we almost seem to have a policy which is companies are unimportant. At what point do we say, you know what, this company is importing less and bringing things in.”
Overall, JNJ ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of JNJ 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 time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than JNJ but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
