We recently compiled a list of the 10 Stocks Jim Cramer Can’t Stop Talking About. In this article, we are going to take a look at where NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stands against the other stocks Jim Cramer can’t stop talking about.
In a recent episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer advises that worrying about what others are concerned about or getting excited about what everyone anticipates is generally futile for investors. When most investors expect something to happen, it’s often already factored into stock prices.
“You want to know the single most useless thing you can do in this business? Oh, that’s easy. The most useless thing you can do as an investor is to worry about what everyone else is worrying about. The flip side of this is also true: there’s no point in getting excited about something that everybody else is eagerly anticipating. Why? Because when the vast majority of investors agree that something’s going to happen, that thing is already priced into the stock market.”
The stock market reacts quickly to the consensus of hedge fund and mutual fund managers, so by the time the majority agrees on an economic trend, it’s already reflected in stock values. Cramer points out that while the real economy moves at a steady pace—through borrowing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling—stocks adjust almost instantly to new information. This rapid adjustment means that, once big institutional investors align on a particular economic outlook, it is already embedded in the market.
“While the real economy moves at its own steady pace—for example, you have to borrow money to build out equipment, then use that equipment to manufacture goods, transport them to retail outlets, and wait for customers to buy them—the stock market has no such limitations. Stocks don’t quite travel at the speed of thought, but they come pretty close. So, the moment a preponderance of hedge fund and mutual fund managers decide that the economy is slowing, speeding up, or flatlining, stocks start trading like that’s already the case.
Usually, it takes some time to build that kind of consensus, which is why you rarely see these moves happening instantaneously. But once the big institutional portfolio managers are on the same page about something, you can be pretty darn confident that it’s baked into the averages.”
The Efficient Markets Hypothesis
Jim Cramer points out that understanding some basic economics can be quite useful for managing investments, even though economists often use complex models that don’t always align with real-world data. Economists can be too focused on their theories and may ignore conflicting data, but basic economic principles can still offer valuable insights. One key concept Cramer highlights is the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.
This theory suggests that stock prices at any given moment already include all available information. When new data comes out, stock prices quickly adjust to reflect this updated reality. Index fund advocates use this theory to argue that it’s nearly impossible for stock pickers to outperform the market, as all known information is already factored into stock prices.
“This is some basic economics 101 stuff. Now, I don’t have a ton of use for economists as professionals on this show—they tend to take a totally ivory-tower approach to their discipline, meaning they have all sorts of models for how the economy is supposed to work (often very boring models, by the way). But they rarely let empirical facts get in the way of a good theory. If the data conflicts with the model, economists have a bad habit of throwing away the data, not the model. However, as long as you keep that caveat in mind, some basic economics is incredibly useful when you’re trying to manage your own money.
For example, let’s take something a little bit difficult, but we’re going to get through this together: what’s known as the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. This theory says that, at any given moment, stock prices already reflect all the relevant information that’s out there. When some new piece of data emerges, stocks immediately adjust to reflect the new reality. You often hear index fund purists citing this theory to explain why it’s impossible for stock pickers to get any kind of edge. According to them, whatever you know about a company should already be baked into its share price. As far as they’re concerned, markets are so efficient that investing in individual stocks is basically the same as gambling.
Jim Cramer explains that if all possible information about a stock is already reflected in its price, then doing detailed research may not give you an edge. In this view, the only factors that can move a stock’s price are new, unexpected pieces of information. If such information were known to anyone, it would already be factored into the stock price.
“If everything you could possibly know is already priced into the stock, that means your homework is meaningless, and the only thing that can push a stock higher or lower is some random new piece of information nobody knows about. It has to be something totally unknown because, if anyone did know, they would have already acted on it, and thus it would be baked into the share price.”
Essentially, they believe that only completely new, unknown information can influence stock prices, which makes individual stock investing seem like a gamble. Cramer acknowledges that while economists and their theories might seem detached from practical investing, understanding concepts like market efficiency can help investors navigate the complexities of stock investing.
“This means that, under the extreme version of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, the only things that can move stocks are “unknown unknowns,” to use the parlance of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And if you’re merely betting on unknown unknowns, you might as well just be playing roulette—it’s more fun.
That’s why index fund advocates adore the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. This theory tells them that it’s impossible for individual investors to consistently beat the averages. So if you want equity exposure, the only smart way to do it is by putting your money into a nice, low-cost index fund that mirrors the S&P 500.”
Our Methodology
This article looks at a recent episode of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, where he discussed several stocks. We’ve selected ten notable companies from his mentions. The article also explores how hedge funds perceive these stocks and ranks them according to their level of hedge fund ownership, from the least owned to the most owned.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with 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 colorful high-end graphics card being plugged in to a gaming computer.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 179
Jim Cramer explains that NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) often appears expensive based on future earnings estimates, but it consistently surpasses those expectations, making the stock look undervalued in hindsight. This pattern has been a remarkable feature of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) since 2012. Cramer advises investors not to focus too much on daily fluctuations in a stock’s price. Instead, it’s important to discern when these movements are meaningful signals versus when they are simply noise with no real significance.
“When you look at NVIDIA on forward earnings or estimates, it always looks expensive, and then it so far trumps those estimates that when you look backward, it turns out the stock was selling at a remarkably low price. That’s been the secret to NVIDIA literally since 2012—incredible! It just keeps doing that, right? Please don’t put too much significance on day-to-day gyrations in a stock’s share price. You have to know when something is a signal and when it’s all just sound and noise, always signifying nothing.”
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a highly attractive investment due to its leading role in the semiconductor industry, particularly in GPUs and AI technologies, as well as its impressive financial performance and expanding market opportunities. As a dominant player in tech, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) benefits from the rapid growth in AI, data centers, gaming, and autonomous vehicles.
In its Q2 FY2024 earnings report, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) achieved record revenue of $13.51 billion, marking a 101% increase from the previous year. This growth is driven by exceptional demand for its GPUs, particularly those used in AI and data centers, with the Data Center segment seeing a 171% revenue boost. This underscores NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s pivotal role in supporting AI technologies and large language models.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s strong momentum is further supported by its strategic partnerships and innovative product offerings. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a key player in the AI revolution, providing essential hardware to cloud providers, enterprises, and research institutions. Its recent collaborations to advance generative AI solidify its leadership position. Additionally, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is expanding into new areas such as automotive and edge computing, where its AI and GPU technologies are increasingly being adopted. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s ongoing investment in research and development and its robust product pipeline keep it at the cutting edge of innovation
Overall NVDA ranks 1st on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer can’t stop talking about. While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar 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 NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
