We recently published an article titled Jim Cramer Looked Closely At These 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) stands against the other stocks Jim Cramer looked closely at.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed the impact of President Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office on the financial markets. Cramer pointed out that while some investors had expected severe tariffs under Trump’s administration, many have begun to believe that these expectations may be exaggerated.
According to Cramer, Wall Street initially became excited about a potentially more flexible approach under Trump. Investors were concerned that Trump might take a hard stance against Mexico and Canada, but as the situation developed, it became clear that his actions would not be as extreme as initially feared. He added:
“Before taking the White House, he talked about putting 25% tariffs on our two longstanding trading partners immediately but then when the America First Trade policy memo came out, we saw that the administration wants to study the situation.”
READ ALSO Jim Cramer’s Thoughts on These 7 Stocks and Jim Cramer Looked At These 7 Stocks Recently
Cramer remarked that although Trump had made bold statements about renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” his actual policies have been more tempered. Cramer noted that if Trump can find someone in Canada willing to negotiate, he would pursue that, and he’s already receiving business-like responses from Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. He added:
“Again, the rhetoric was hot, but the reality was cool. Sure there are some real harsh words for a lot of the environmental rules and regulations and grants that President Biden jammed through the last four years. Trump has no time for these.”
In addition to trade policies, Cramer also commented on Trump’s stance regarding environmental regulations. Trump has made it clear that he has no patience for many of the environmental rules and grants implemented during the previous administration. Cramer pointed out that Trump views oil and gas as essential to America’s economic strength, believing that increased drilling and production would lead to lower oil prices and enhance U.S. power abroad.
However, Cramer acknowledged that it’s unclear how much influence Trump can exert over the oil and gas industry. He emphasized the need for more infrastructure, particularly pipelines, to facilitate both domestic and international distribution of natural gas. While oil executives are aware of the political pressure to increase production, they also know that any loss of discipline in response to presidential demands could lead to plummeting prices and financial losses.
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 January 21. 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 team of accountants in a boardroom, discussing strategic moves of an insurance company.
The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 95
When a caller mentioned that they have started building a position in The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR), Cramer said:
“I hear behind the scenes over and over again that they are the most AI-related auto insured, the best at pricing. I salute you for going with Progressive.”
Progressive (NYSE:PGR) offers a wide range of personal and commercial insurance, including auto, home, and business coverage. In December 2024, Cramer noted that PGR was among the companies that hit $100 billion in market cap in 2024 and commented:
“Next we have Progressive. Now it’s up 60%. This auto insurer is known to use more AI in pricing than any other company… The insurance business is on fire and we know from these egregious CPI numbers, one comes out this Wednesday, they just keep raising rates. These three are winners for certain.”
Overall PGR ranks 2nd on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recently looked at. While we acknowledge the potential of PGR 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 PGR 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.
