We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Recently Put These 10 Stocks Under Spotlight. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.
On Monday, Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, shared his thoughts on how the government’s approach to tariffs could play a crucial role in sustaining the stock market rally. Cramer expressed satisfaction with the current direction of policy.
“There’s what happened two weeks ago, two Thursdays ago, more accurately when the stock market official went into correction mode. Until the market broke down like that, I think the president was perfectly willing to hammer anybody just to get his way.”
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“I don’t think he (President Donald Trump) wants to punish good American companies that make things here.”
Cramer explained that he no longer thinks the president wants to harm American companies that manufacture goods domestically. He suggested that the shift in attitude is a relatively new development, and it may signal a more nuanced approach going forward. He noted that with the market’s recovery, it is possible that the conversation around protectionist tariffs will surface once again, but the context might have changed.
Cramer speculated that when the market entered correction mode, President Trump may have been influenced by the pleas from various observers about the damaging effects on stocks of good American companies.
“Here’s the bottom line: At the end of the day, America’s the only country on earth that’s played fair on trade. Everybody else breaks the rules to protect their domestic businesses. That’s hollowed out our industrial heartland. And that dynamic can only change if our government takes a more carrot-and-stick approach. Assuming Trump doesn’t go overboard, that might just be what we’ve got and it means stocks can finally stage a real rally again.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 10 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 24. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment 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).
A close-up of a person’s hand holding a bottle of pharmaceuticals.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 91
A caller asked if they should buy more Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), highlighting the stock’s recent decline. Cramer replied:
“Merck is, you know what, Rob Davis does a good job. Merck is all hung up on the fact that Keytruda is the only real drug, big drug they have. Look, I’m going to say something that could get me in trouble, but I like Merck at this level. I really do. But I’ve gotta tell you and… you know, I play it straight. I like Bristol-Myers a lot more, BMY. I like it a lot more because their schizophrenia drug is on the come [up].”
Merck (NYSE:MRK) is a well-known worldwide healthcare corporation dedicated to the research, development, and marketing of a wide range of pharmaceutical products. Appearing on Squawk on the Street on February 19, Cramer said:
“Although Merck, is, maybe the ultimate laggard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Merck perform this badly. Here’s this stock, distinguished from the company, which actually got hurt by a decision by the Chinese to not give their people two hundred million vaccines, GARDASIL, RFK, maybe it’s kind of a reciprocal thing [laughs]. . .it’s great vaccine, you may not like vaccines, but great vaccine, and the, the Chinese have chosen not to use it, they haven’t, and some of it’s with a wholesaler that apparently can’t give anymore to because they don’t have enough money. But that’s the one I’m. . . .that used to be called saint Merck, and I know it’s not high growth anymore but wow, I think it’s worth looking at because it trades like a bad tack.
… No, in the way of what’s really going with some of these drug companies. The loss of, they have a loss of exclusivity for an unbelievable drug KEYTRUDA, but it’s not for years. The only one in this group that acts at all well is Lilly, and I do think that when you’re meeting with the President . . .the drug companies meet with the President and it’s like you don’t know what he’s going to say after.”
Overall, MRK ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently. While we acknowledge the potential of MRK 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 MRK 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.
