We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round: 9 Stocks in Spotlight. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Oscar Health, Inc. (NYSE:OSCR) stands against the other stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed a market trend that’s been generating impressive gains, especially when investors target heavily shorted stocks. He explained the phenomenon as he said that investors find success by betting that these companies are in better shape than short sellers expect. According to Cramer, this approach has led to some significant wins in recent times. He pointed out the behavior of short sellers, noting that when things go wrong for them, they panic.
“The shorts always panic when their trades fall apart because, unlike longs, if you’re a short seller, you can lose a lot more than a hundred percent of your investment if the stock goes up too much.”
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Cramer also highlighted that while short sellers can profit when a company fails, it’s a risky game with significant asymmetry. He explained that while a stock’s price can only fall to zero, it has the potential to rise indefinitely. Cramer cautioned that although short sellers might be hoping for a stock’s downfall, they are equally vulnerable to the nightmare scenario of infinite losses if the stock price continues to climb.
In such situations, when short sellers run out of options, they are forced to buy back shares, which can send the stock price even higher. For shareholders, this scenario can be advantageous. While short sellers may be a threat when predicting a stock’s decline, their need to buy back shares can act like rocket fuel for the stock’s price when good news emerges.
“If you’re a shareholder, they’re your worst enemy when they’re talking about a stock going to zero. But once the stock starts soaring on any good news, the shorts are your best friend because their forced buying is like rocket fuel and they can’t stop the propulsion while you just get to go along for the ride.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the recent episodes of Mad Money. 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).
A close up of a patient and a healthcare professional engaging in conversation, showing the company’s commitment to patient care.
Oscar Health, Inc. (NYSE:OSCR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45
When asked about Oscar Health, Inc. (NYSE:OSCR) during a recent lightning round, Cramer said:
“I have to tell you that until I saw that Mark Bertolini is the CEO, I didn’t really have much in store for this, but Bertolini is a winner and a hitter.”
Oscar Health. (NYSE:OSCR) is a U.S.-based health insurance company offering individual and small group plans, along with a technology platform, +Oscar, that supports value-based care and provides reinsurance products. The company has been under the leadership of Mark Bertolini, who became CEO a year ago. With him at the helm, it has made strides toward achieving profitability.
The company is no longer focusing on a single approach to growth. Instead, it is diversifying its efforts and has identified new growth opportunities, particularly in the Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) space. This program allows smaller businesses to reimburse employees for insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, and it has seen increasing adoption in recent years.
Bertolini aims to position Oscar Health. (NYSE:OSCR) as the leading choice for businesses offering Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA), especially as more states enact laws to facilitate this type of employee benefit. Reflecting on the broader landscape, Bertolini noted a shift in the direction of policy at both the state and federal levels. He pointed out that policymakers are moving beyond efforts to “repeal and replace” existing systems and are instead focusing on creating solutions to improve the healthcare marketplaces and better serve the American population.
Overall OSCR ranks 3rd on our list of the stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round. While we acknowledge the potential of OSCR 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than OSCR 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.
