We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer’s Game Plan: 12 Stocks in Focus This Week. In this article, we are going to take a look at where UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stands against the other stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s game plan.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed some of the week’s important market events, focusing on earnings reports from different companies, including major banks and new data from the Labor Department.
Cramer expressed hope that the wildfire situation would bring some positive news. He acknowledged the challenges natural disasters bring, but pointed out that government and insurance companies are working to stabilize the situation. While Cramer made it clear that he doesn’t support exploiting tragedy for profit, he also noted that some retailers tend to benefit during such times as people begin rebuilding.
He mentioned that while some of these stocks have already seen gains, there may still be room for growth, especially as insurance payouts and government funds flow toward reconstruction efforts.
“How about the other side of the trade? Here I’m talking about earnings. Can great earnings triumph over a sour bond market? We’re going to find out for certain because this is a week we associate with bank earnings and there’s a lot of misconceptions about the banks. We know that when they make the wrong bets on the bond market, like two years ago, their stocks can take some real nasty hits. But when their bond portfolios are good, like they are today, they can withstand or even profit from higher rates so let’s not write these stocks off.”
READ ALSO 7 Consumer Goods and Retail Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar and Jim Cramer Talked About These 9 Nuclear Power and Quantum Computing Stocks
Regarding the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, Cramer noted that this is a major event where nearly every drug and healthcare company presents updates. He expects some exciting developments, despite current economic conditions. However, he cautioned that drug stocks are still highly sensitive to interest rates, which, in many cases, are more influential than even a company’s pipeline or earnings. Cramer discussed the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are scheduled for release on Tuesday.
“It needs to come in cooler if there’s any hope that interest rates could reverse and the Fed can regain some of its lost credibility, stemming from cutting in a hurry when we now know there was no need to do so. I think it’s possible that these numbers are gonna be cooler than the labor report, but not enough to justify our appeal of today’s losses.”
Wednesday’s market action would bring more attention to bank earnings, Cramer explained, noting that banks would likely receive an initial boost from higher interest rates, particularly through products like certificates of deposit, which offer lower rates than what banks can earn by investing in the bond market. While this provides a short-term benefit, it could make these stocks worth holding in the interim.
“Bottom line: If you’re a bull or at least trying to make sense of this market, well, you know a market that goes down on seemingly good news, all I can say is that the stock market that gets surprised may seem like it’s reacting inappropriately until you see its master, the bond market, explain everything by the direction of interest rates. For now, that’s the key determinant of the entire stock market, even as there are pockets of positivity that can escape the bond market’s tyranny.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 12 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on January 10. 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 senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 112
Cramer predicted that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) will report terrific earnings this week.
“The biggest health insurer UnitedHealth Group reports too. Now we know this company has been in the news sadly, after one of its highest-level executives was murdered. This group’s had strong earnings of late, including, really, I mean terrific. They just got some good news from Medicare too this very evening. So they’re no longer dealing with a post-Covid hangover, they’re getting better return from the government and you know what, I suspect UNH is gonna have an excellent quarter. So what can I say? These stocks, probably gonna work. ”
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is a large, diversified healthcare company providing a wide range of services and products across various sectors. It has set a long-term growth target of 13% to 16%. For the full year 2024, the company’s net earnings guidance is between $15.50 and $15.75 per share. This forecast reflects factors such as the sale of its South American operations in the first half of 2024 and the impacts of a cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
Insurers have expressed concerns in recent years about rates being insufficient to cover growing medical costs, which have affected earnings and stock prices. Recently, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) suggested that Medicare Advantage plan payments could rise by an average of 4.3% in 2026, a more substantial increase than the current year as per BNN Bloomberg. When excluding changes in patient risk scores, which typically boost revenues, the payment rise would still be a healthy 2.2%.
This proposed hike would represent the largest increase in Medicare payments since 2023. Health insurance providers that offer private Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S., including UnitedHealth, are likely to see a significant increase in payments in 2026, should a proposed change by the incoming Trump administration be implemented.
The proposed adjustments would allocate an additional $21 billion to Medicare Advantage providers in 2026 compared to the previous year. UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) has a significant presence in the Medicare Advantage market, accounting for 29% of enrollment in 2024. In nearly 29% of U.S. counties, UnitedHealth held at least 75% of the Medicare Advantage enrollment, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Overall UNH ranks 10th on our list of the stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s game plan. While we acknowledge the potential of UNH 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 UNH 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.
