This article presents an overview of Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 5 Stock Recommendations. For a detailed overview of such stocks, read our article, Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 11 Stock Recommendations.
5. WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 30
Electrical distribution and services company WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC) ranks fifth in our list of the top stock recommendations from Jim Cramer. When asked about WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC), Cramer said he does not know “what happened in the last quarter” but he believes it’s a “good” and “inexpensive” stock. Cramer also said that he’s “OK” with WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC).
Last month WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC) posted Q4 results. Adjusted EPS in the period came in at $2.65, missing estimates by $1.22. Revenue fell 1.8% year over year to $5.5 billion, missing estimates by $80 million.
WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC) announced a 10% increase in its quarterly dividend.
Artisan Small Cap Fund made the following comment about WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“We initiated new Garden positions in WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE:WCC), CCC Intelligent Solutions and Stevanato Group during the quarter. WESCO’s 2020 acquisition of Anixter made it the largest US electrical and data center distributor, which further strengthens WESCO’s brand and allows the company to benefit from supply chain advantages. We believe the company will experience accelerating growth due to internal and external catalysts. From an internal perspective, the Anixter acquisition provide more cross-selling opportunities between the two largely homogenous customer bases as well as the ability to use the combined scale to go after new opportunities. Additionally, the combination will likely reduce earnings cyclicality. From an external perspective, we believe the company will benefit from increased spending on the energy transition, electrification, reshoring of supply chains and higher levels of computing needed to power things like artificial intelligence.”
4. Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 50
Online furniture store company Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) ranks fourth in our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recommended during his latest Lightning Round program on CNBC. A caller asked Jim Cramer whether Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) is a buy on the back of improving bottom line and expectations of rate cuts in the later half of this year. Cramer agreed with the questioner’s thesis and said Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) is a Buy for the said reasons.
As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, 50 hedge funds out of the 933 funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), up from 40 hedge funds in the previous quarter. This shows a significant jump in hedge fund sentiment for the stock. The biggest stakeholder of Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) as of the end of 2023 was Zachary Sternberg and Benjamin Stein’s Spruce House Investment Management which owns a $225 million stake in Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W).
3. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 67
Jim Cramer has been extremely bullish on semiconductor stocks these days. Recently, while recommending Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), Cramer also said investors would want to own Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) since he thinks Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) are “terrific.” In January Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) posted second quarter results after which Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari wrote a note on the stock saying Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is well positioned to outperform the market this year. The analyst also increased his price target on the stock to $912 from $700.
As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, 67 hedge funds out of the 933 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX).
Baron Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is a leading global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) and services to the semiconductor industry. Lam’s products tend to focus on etch and deposition process steps and its tools are critical in the production of NAND and DRAM memory chips as well as logic devices. While the share of overall WFE spending looks relatively fragmented across the top four to five players in the industry, each of these leading companies tends to have significant share within smaller slices of the industry, creating a stable and favorable industry structure, with share shifts tending to only happen at times of technology transition in the broader industry. We purchased shares of Lam in the quarter as we believe we are at one of those key transition points in the industry that will disproportionately benefit Lam, with a move to gate-all-around transistors in logic creating an increasing need for complex deposition and etch process stops and the emergence of high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging requiring increasingly complex high-aspect-ratio (i.e., very deep) etches, where Lam has virtually 100% market share. We also believe the market is underestimating the pent-up earnings power in the company as NAND WFE spending recovers in the coming years from one of its worst downcycles ever in 2023.”
2. Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 70
“You’d wanna own Applied,” Cramer said recently in response to a question about the semiconductor company Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT).
Last month Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) posted strong quarterly results and also boosted its guidance. Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) said its investments in AI and IoT are bearing fruit.
Here’s what Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) said during its latest earnings call:
We expect our CFE systems revenue to grow by a factor of 4 in 2024 and represent 50% of our total eBeam system sales. The incredible innovation we see in the industry today is not limited to the leading edge. In recent years, ICAPS customers have invested about 10% of their revenues or about $30 billion annually in research and development to accelerate the roadmap for IoT, communications, automotive, power and sensor technologies. ICAPS technology depends less on shrinking device features and customer investments are heavily weighted towards new structures, new materials and new integration approaches, playing to the core strengths of Applied. ICAPS is another area where we saw market inflections early. And five years ago, we formed a dedicated team to focus on the needs of these customers.
Since then, we’ve released more than 20 new ICAPS products that target the highest value device innovations in these markets and we have a robust development pipeline of unit process and integrated solutions. While major end market inflections, such as AI and IoT, electric vehicles and renewable energy are already driving semiconductor growth and innovation, it’s important to recognize they are still in the early stages of adoption. For example, high-performance GPUs for AI data centers only represent 6% of leading-edge foundry-logic wafer starts today. The full potential of technologies like AI cannot be unlocked without next-generation chips with better performance, power and cost. The technology roadmap for semiconductors is rich with possibilities and opportunities, but also incredibly complex.
No company is better placed to address this complexity than Applied Materials. With the industry’s broadest and deepest portfolio of capabilities and products, we have a unique ability to combine, co-optimize and integrate our technologies to develop highly differentiated solutions for our customers.
Read the entire earnings call transcript here.
Generation Investment Management made the following comment about Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in its Q2 2023 investor letter:
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT): Semiconductor revenue has grown 6% per year since 2010, driven by increasing demand for smartphones, datacentres and electronic content in vehicles and industrial settings.4 Through work spanning six roadmaps covering many sub-themes within semiconductors (including industry consolidation, capital equipment and generative AI), we are confident that these trends will continue or even accelerate in the coming decades. The rise of generative AI in particular will require high-performing semiconductors, such as Nvidia’s GPUs, in datacentres.
Traditionally the industry relied on semiconductor manufacturers to deliver steady advances in semiconductor performance while reducing costs. This phenomenon is known as Moore’s Law, which was identified by Intel founder Gordon Moore. Traditionally, Moore’s Law relied on shrinking the light source used to expose photosensitive material on a silicon wafer to make smaller semiconductors, which in turn led to falling costs.
In recent years, however, Moore’s Law has slowed. Manufacturing has run up against the limits of physics. Making semiconductors smaller more cheaply has therefore become difficult. The latest generation of lithography machines that create this light source are marvels of modern science, but they are also expensive to produce, not to mention power-hungry. Delivering performance improvements in the most advanced semiconductors is now becoming costlier. This presents a risk, both to generative AI and a net zero world.
All is not lost, however. The semiconductor industry attracts some of the best minds in the world, many of whom are looking at alternative ways to continue to deliver more power-efficient and cheaper semiconductors. A key area of focus is around developing new materials used in manufacturing semiconductors, and new ways of applying (‘deposition’) and selectively removing (‘etch’) these materials to create the desired semiconductor. Applied Materials is one of the companies in the vanguard of these developments…” (Click here to read the full text)
1. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 96
Jim Cramer was recently asked about Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) during a latest Lightning Round segment of his program on CNBC. Cramer said he thinks Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is a “very inexpensive stock” which trades at “ten times earnings.” Cramer also said Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is “doing well.” He also highlighted that Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is a Warren Buffett stock. As of the end of 2023 the Oracle of Omaha had a $35 billion stake in Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC).
Cramer also commented on Bank of America Corp’s (NYSE:BAC) dividend yield and said:
“I like that.”
Jim Cramer also praised Bank of America Corp’s (NYSE:BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan and said the executive is “doing an excellent job.”
Diamond Hill Large Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Among our top individual contributors in Q4 were KKR and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC). Banking and financial services company Bank of America rallied alongside large-cap banks broadly in Q4 as the market focused less on interest-rate risks amid the Fed’s announcement it was likely done raising interest rates. Banks also likely generally benefited from a relief rally following three-plus quarters of negative sentiment to start the year. Industry trends aside, however, we maintain our conviction in Bank of America’s position given its diversified, low-cost deposit base, which we believe remains less susceptible to flight.”
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