We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Got These 10 Stocks All Wrong. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 1 year ago.
On Tuesday, April 1 , the host of Mad Money opened the show by focusing on President Trump’s tariffs and the economic risks ahead of ‘Liberation Day’. While Cramer expressed sympathy for the President’s goals, he warned viewers that the consequences could be severe for both consumers and the broader economy:
“Now as someone who’s been a huge critic of unrestrained free trade, I am very sympathetic to what President Trump is trying to accomplish with these tariffs. Every other country on earth tries to protect its own domestic industries except America which has spent decades letting foreign competitors steamroll our guys in exchange for cheaper stuff. President Trump is justifiably furious about this he wants to do something about it but solving the problem is going to hurt. We don’t know how much our prices will go up for just about everything, but we do know those tariffs will be used as an excuse to raise prices across the board. It’s been very hard to get a sense of the overall damage.”
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer’s Thoughts on Liberation Day, Tariffs, and 17 Stocks to Watch Right Now, and 10 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently.
But despite understanding the motivation behind the policy, Cramer was blunt about the scale of economic disruption that a proposed 20% tariff on all imports would cause:
“Speaking as someone who’s not a fan of free trade I have to be honest here, a 20% across the board tariff on almost all imports that would be horrendous for the economy. That’s a 20% increase on everything we buy from overseas and we import a huge amount of foreign goods in America, and those goods are cheap because that’s the deal. There’s plenty of competition from these companies but with the exception of the auto industry and those that contribute to it -mainly steel – it doesn’t matter anymore. The truth is the jobs that are meant to be protected by tariffs were automated out of existence a long time ago.”
Cramer mentioned that even the industries that stand to benefit in theory, like autos and steel, aren’t necessarily helping the average American:
“The tariffs aren’t protecting us from anything because we barely make anything anymore. The horses left the barn ages ago. Ford and GM will be able to make more money by raising prices but who does that help besides their shareholders and union members? What’s good for General Motors is not necessarily good for America anymore. All people know is that cars will be more expensive; they don’t care about who makes them.”
He also criticized the administration’s execution, calling out the lack of clarity and coordination behind the policy rollout and questioning whether any American companies will actually be spared from the impact:
“I wish the White House were more serious about making the tariffs work. Our country’s been crushed by foreign imports that are typically made by cheap labor and often subsidized so they destroy our jobs. But the jobs are gone. We had almost a million seamstresses in this country four decades ago now we have almost none; they aren’t bringing back those jobs. Sure, some companies thought they’d be buying immunity by building new factories here, but there’s nothing on paper that suggests that the president will spare them. Is there really no sanctuary?”
Wrapping up the opening segment, Cramer reminded viewers that while many Americans may support a “tough-on-trade” agenda, their real fear is inflation; and it’s inflation that the tariffs will likely exacerbate:
“Finally, most Americans are worried about inflation; not tariffs. That’s what got Trump elected for heaven’s sake. As much as I rail against the devil’s bargain that gave our country the cheap stuff at the cost of domestic jobs, cheap stuff is what America wanted. […] Here’s the bottom line when the book is written on this moment I think we’ll question what we were liberated from on Liberation Day and again I think Trump is totally justified in cracking down on our trading partners but that doesn’t mean it will be good for the economy.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 10 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during Mad Money episodes that aired 1 year ago between April 5 and April 12. We then calculated their performance for the past 12 months, until April 2nd, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.
Please note that this article mentions Jim Cramer’s previous opinions and may not account for any changes to his opinions regarding the stocks that are mentioned. It is primarily an examination of how his previously provided opinions have panned out.
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).
An elegant and modern jewelry store showcasing refined diamond jewelry.
Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 28
Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG), the parent company of Kay, Zales, and Jared, was touted by Cramer last year as a turnaround story under CEO Gina Drosos. He admired the low valuation and improving fundamentals at the time.
“Under the leadership of CEO Gina Drosos, Signet has become a phenomenal turnaround story […] the stock trades at less than 10 times this year’s earnings estimate. […] Signet looks real good right here right now.”
But Signet has cratered 47.6% since that endorsement, with weakening jewelry demand and consumer caution slamming the stock.
Although Jim Cramer remains a fan of the company’s CEO, he admitted that the company has been failing, saying this on the 14th of January:
“[on Signet dropping after holiday guidance]Yeah, look, I don’t know, they lost Gina Drosos [laughs]. I think she was a remarkable CEO. And I think this is a very CEO-led company. This is not a given when it comes to jewellery.”
Overall, SIG ranks 4th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 1 year ago. While we acknowledge the potential of SIG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SIG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
