We recently published a list of Was Jim Cramer Right About These 13 Stocks?. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed.
During the latest episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer focused on the recent market volatility and the reasons behind it. He explained that the reason behind this volatility is the escalating trade war with Canada. Here’s how he explained the situation:
“We got a trade war going with Canada. Here’s what happened, they announced a 25% tariff on electricity in our country earlier today. Immediately president Trump announced some hard retaliation doubling the tariffs on aluminum and steel. The steel side can be dealt with. Aluminum, I don’t know but it’s bad news. Canadians produce a huge percentage of that stuff for our airline makers, for trucks, for cars. A 50% tariff would be very inflationary and could destroy the profits of the automakers.”
Cramer’s recent opinion is that the U.S. is no longer a manufacturing-driven economy, but a service-driven one, where businesses thrive on stability and consumer confidence. Here’s how he explained it:
“Now we’re not a manufacturing economy, we’re a service economy. That’s why it stings when you see these retailers, telecoms, and airlines linking the negativity of their customers to political actions. […] The issue is that, again, we’re service. Most of our business is service, and that economy is starting to roll over because consumer confidence is declining as people worry about the impact of these tariffs. They don’t understand them. Sure, we have plenty of room for layoffs, so to speak, because we have very low unemployment. But the stock market is saying the tariffs will be inflationary, and the White House hasn’t explained to the American people why it’s worth it.”
Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 13 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on March 20, 2024. We then calculated their performance from March 20th, 2024, market close to March 12th, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A customer in a warehouse aisles, browsing the wide range of branded and private-label products.
Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Cramer was bullish on Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) along with other strong retailers at the time:
“You buy the retailers now when the economy is still strong enough, and the numbers for a Dick’s or a Best Buy or a Costco are strong enough.”
Unlike the rest of the retailers mentioned by Cramer in that episode, Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST) has been doing exceptionally well, rising by 25.16% since then.
His latest remarks on March 11th are also reflective of his optimism in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)’s business and shares:
“I would rather be in tech than I would say, you know except for Walmart and Costco, those are the ones that you buy at this moment.”
“Well, you know, by there should be no boycott of Costco because they stuck by DEI. And one of the reasons when I did some work on why they stuck by DEI, they said, we’re the greatest retailer in the world and the most profitable like so why scrap it? Now I mean, yeah, yeah, Millerchip’s the CFO, he’s from Kroger, and he’s not gonna ever top with the elocution and brilliance of Richard Galanti.”
“But this is the age of Walmart and Costco. And there isn’t anything I get at Kohl’s that I can’t get at those two.”
Overall, COST ranks 8th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of COST 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COST 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 at Insider Monkey.