We recently published an article titled Jim Cramer’s Game Plan: 15 Stocks in Focus. In this article, we are going to take a look at where PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) stands against the other stocks.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, discussed the upcoming market and corporate activity to look forward to this week, which will be dominated by earnings reports from various companies and an important inflation report from the Labor Department.
Cramer noted that Friday marked the heavy market focus on the prospect of the White House imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China. As expected, the tariffs were announced, 25% from Mexico and Canada, and 10% from China, and the market, which had already been struggling, dropped further.
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Cramer noted that the Dow plunged by 337 points, the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq declined by 0.28%. Adding fuel to the fire, President Trump later commented that he was “not concerned about the market’s reaction.” Cramer, reflecting on this, wished he could share that same sense of ease. He added:
“Finally, on Friday, we get the Labor Department’s non-farm payroll and right now the Fed is concerned that the economy might be running too hot. If we get robust job growth with higher wages, then I doubt we’ll see any rate hikes in the first half of the year.”
He then posed the question: if investors are hoping for a rising stock market, what would they want to see? Cramer explained that a job report that’s just “so-so” would be ideal, strong enough to keep rate cuts on the table, but not so strong as to hinder quarterly earnings.
“Bottom line: When you get a week that’s packed with important earnings reports and the monthly employment report plus the tariff news, you’re usually better off sitting on your hands because there’s just too much data for any individual to process even for an AI-powered individual. By the way, oh, let’s just throw in this DeepSeek stuff, which has made tech too maddening to buy or sell and too, let’s say boring. So if in doubt, do nothing.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on January 31. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2024, 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 glass of a refreshing carbonated beverage illustrating the company’s different beverages.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58
Cramer mentioned that packaged food stocks like PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) have been hit because of GLP-1s but mentioned its attractive yield as well.
“The packaged food stocks have been dogs, dogs ever since the GLP-1 drugs burst on the scene, especially PepsiCo, one of my faves with its soft drink and snacks businesses. I think the new weight loss drugs make it hard for this great company to play offense. Hasn’t helped that this supermarket has become an inflation battleground, but PepsiCo yields 3.6%. You never know when you can catch a total rotation into this beaten-down group.”
PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) is a leading company in the production, marketing, and distribution of a wide range of beverages and snack products, featuring popular brands like Lay’s, Gatorade, Pepsi, Doritos, Tropicana, and Aquafina. When Cramer discussed the company in November 2024, he recommended avoiding the stock, citing several factors that could negatively impact its performance.
He pointed out potential rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the impact of GLP-1 drugs on consumer behavior, and rising concerns about junk food consumption. Despite PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) offering a 3.5% yield at the time, Cramer believed these elements could cause the stock to decline as he stated, “I think it goes lower.” Since then, the stock has declined more than 10%.
Overall PEP ranks 6th on our list of the stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Game Plan. While we acknowledge the potential of PEP 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 PEP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.