Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, recently pointed out some unexpected trends in the stock market this year, spotlighting a group of companies that have largely flown under the radar. These stocks, often overshadowed by the heavily discussed “Magnificent Seven”, the dominant tech giants, are making significant gains without the fanfare. Cramer called them “quiet winners,” emphasizing that many of these stocks, particularly those outside the tech sector, are not getting the recognition they deserve from Wall Street.
READ ALSO Jim Cramer Discussed These 12 Stocks Recently and Jim Cramer Highlighted Buying Opportunities in 13 Stocks
Cramer elaborated further on this point, noting that the leading stocks in 2025 have emerged from an unexpected mix of sectors, making this trend all the more interesting. Cramer remarked that it is clear that there is a shift happening in the market, with industries beyond tech making significant strides, yet remaining largely underappreciated by the broader investing community.
“So far this year, we’ve had many very big winners outside of tech, and I bet most of them can keep quietly working their way higher.”
He also pointed out that the insurance industry has experienced a particularly strong few years, noting its impressive pricing power, which has translated into higher premiums. This, in turn, has allowed insurance companies to invest those premiums in the bond market, generating significant returns.
Additionally, Cramer argued that the market often gets the most obvious things wrong, which ends up costing investors dearly. In his usual candid style, Cramer emphasized that while no investment is entirely foolproof, certain stocks show more resilience than others. “The key is to buy them when they’re down because they won’t stay down for long,” he advised.
He continued, acknowledging that some stocks have stumbled recently, but he believes that many of the non-tech winners from this year still have room to grow. His message to investors was clear: focus on these quieter, non-tech stocks, as they have the potential to deliver strong returns even as the tech sector struggles with occasional setbacks.
Jim Cramer’s Thoughts on These 9 Stocks
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on February 6. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
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’s Thoughts on These 9 Stocks
9. Fastly, Inc. (NYSE:FSLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 14
When a caller noted that Fastly, Inc. (NYSE:FSLY) looks good fundamentally and financially, Cramer steered them toward Cloudflare instead.
“No, I mean they’ve missed a quarter too often. If you want to be in that, you wanna be in CloudFlare, which just reported tonight. Matthew Prince, doing an absolutely terrific job.”
Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) provides an edge cloud platform that helps customers build, secure, and deliver digital experiences by offering services like content delivery, video streaming solutions, network optimization, and security features such as DDoS protection, bot management, and API protection. Cramer has been bearish on the company for a while now as he commented in 2023:
“They haven’t pivoted to profitability and I’m not gonna recommend a stock that hasn’t pivoted to profitability, that has a very high price to sales analysis.”
Since then, Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) stock declined over 45% while Cramer’s recommended NET stock gained over 185%.
8. Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 15
When a caller asked if it was too late to buy Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN), Cramer replied:
“No, Banco Santander is very inexpensive still. Ana Botín is doing a great job…. I know I just, endlessly pounded the table. But at $5, I still think it’s a great situation.”
Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) offers a wide range of financial services, including banking, loans, mortgages, asset management, insurance, and digital payment solutions, along with corporate and investment banking services and online financial offerings. The company reported its full-year 2024 earnings result on February 5. Executive chair Ana Botín, highlighted record financial results for the third consecutive year, pointing out growth in revenue, profitability, and returns.
Banco Santander’s (NYSE:SAN) income rose by 8%, driven by the addition of eight million new customers. Return on tangible equity improved to 16.3%, and cash dividends per share increased by 39%. The company posted an attributable profit of €12.57 billion for 2024, marking a 14% increase compared to 2023. Earnings per share also saw a significant increase of 18%, reaching €0.77.
