Jim Cramer Says ON Semiconductor (ON) Is In a ‘Very Difficult’ Situation

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s December Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks to Watch. In this article, we are going to take a look at where ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) stands against other stocks to watch in Jim Cramer’s December portfolio.

Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC talked about the evolution of AI and how the technology has come from being ignored as “hype” to now completely changing everyday lives for many. Cramer mentioned the AI solutions offered by Marc Benioff’s company and said the technology is actually exceeding expectations “dramatically.” [read Marc Benioff’s latest comments here]

Cramer mentioned the comments of  Benioff on his company’s new AI-powered solutions:

“Suddenly, though, we have Agent Force, and with it, Marc said, I quote, “We’re unleashing this new year of digital labor force for every business and every industry.” He went on to say, quote, “The implications are just simply profound. Now people ridicule me for saying how much we need AI, but Marc says, quote, ‘For decades, economic growth depended on expanding the human workforce. It was all about getting more labor,’ end quote. Not anymore—not with agents powered by AI who, as you’re stating, can work faster, doing tedious things but essential jobs that nobody wants.

And there it is—you hear that Marc got 200 deals in the first week of Agent Force alone, lots of brand-name companies too. Do you know there are thousands more in the pipeline? Real customers, real money, tangible. That’s an insane amount of business to do,” Cramer said.

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 11 Stocks to Watch and Jim Cramer on AMD and Other Stocks

For this article, we watched some latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 stocks he was talking about. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).

Jim Cramer Says ON Semiconductor (ON) Is In a ‘Very Difficult’ Situation

A semiconductor engineer in a state-of-the-art laboratory, analyzing advanced semiconductor products.

ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 45

Jim Cramer recently said during the Lightning Round segment of his program on CNBC that he cannot recommend ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) because of the slowdown in the auto industry.

“ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON) is in a very difficult situation because it’s an industrial, what we call Internet of Things semiconductor. Those stocks are all going lower because they all have auto exposure, and the auto is no place to be. The auto industry is slowing down…so I’m going to say it’s got to go even lower still. And I can’t recommend it as painful as that is, because it is cheap.”

Aristotle Atlantic Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:ON) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

“We sold ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:ON) and have become more cautious on the global automotive market, especially for electric vehicles, which we believe will see a period of slower sales due to both new infrastructure requirements and consumers becoming more knowledgeable about the potential costs and issues with owning EVs. In addition, the market is becoming a lot more competitive on the supply side, with many new models being launched simultaneously, which we believe will lead to pricing pressures for the OEMs, which could create pricing headwinds for suppliers such as ON Semiconductor. While we see global EV penetration as continuing to increase over the next decade, supported by government incentives, we remain cautious in the near term and believe we are entering a period of lower sales trends following the explosive growth of the past three years.”

Overall, ON ranks 6th on our list of stocks to watch in Jim Cramer’s December portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential of ON, 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ON but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.