We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: 10 Best Stocks to Buy. Since ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in his latest program talked about discipline during short-term market rallies and emphasized the importance of knowing when to take some profits off the table when things are going your way. According to Cramer, the “most important lesson” in short-term rallies is that “you always have to work hard to prepare yourself for the future.”
Cramer said that you should not “give in” to the market euphoria and hit “buy, buy, buy” when the market is “roaring.” The CNBC host said for many it becomes difficult to sell because they feel they were late to the rally and want to hold on to their best-performing stocks during bull runs. But Cramer questioned this thinking: if your portfolio sees big gains and you let it “ride” the rally without selling any stocks and eventually those gains begin to “evaporate,” how is that different from totally missing out on the rally? “It isn’t,” Cramer said.
Cramer talked about the post-COVID rally of 2020 and 2021 where the market saw an “unbelievable” bull run, only to pare those gains after the Fed’s pivot and its “war” on inflation. Jim Cramer advised investors to always remain “tethered” to reality.
“If you would have sold stocks gradually on their way up as I told you to do you’d have been in a much better shape as the market spent the next 11 months getting obliterated,” said Cramer.
For this article we watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer aired over the past few days and picked 10 stocks he’s bullish on. 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).
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 62
When asked about ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) in a latest program, Jim Cramer said that if you got to own an oil company, “I say you own ConocoPhillips.”
Analysts believe ConocoPhillips’ (NYSE:COP) $22.5 billion acquisition of Marathon Oil would give the company a strong boost and expand its footprint in the Permian. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) expects to capture synergies worth $500 million per year from the deal mainly due to the reduction in G&A expenses.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has already benefitted significantly from the rise in oil prices following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Over the past three years it cut its share count by 13%. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) expects to earn $10 per share next year, and if we add Marathon’s $3 per-share earnings, the total EPS estimate for the year translates to $13 per share. Wall Street expects ConocoPhillips’ (NYSE:COP) earnings to grow 12% next year. Following the close of the Marathon Deal, ConocoPhillips expects to buy back $20 billion worth of stock over three years. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) also expects to increase its ordinary base dividend by 34% to 78 cents per share starting in the fourth quarter of 2024. All of this would bode extremely well for COP shareholders. Wall Street analysts have an average price target of $ 143.91 on the stock, which presents a 31% upside from the current levels.
Overall, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) ranks 6th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer Latest Portfolio: 10 Best Stocks to Buy. While we acknowledge the potential of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) 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 ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) 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 on Insider Monkey.
