Northrop Grumman (NOC): “Palantir Is Coming for Them” – Jim Cramer on Defense Contractors’ Uncertain Future

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Discusses These 10 Stocks & Dissects President Trump’s China Tariffs. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.

In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed China’s retaliatory actions against President Trump’s tariffs. The program was aired on the day China retaliated, and Cramer commented on Chinese actions against coal gas and others and export control on critical minerals. Starting from coal, he shared “Coal, very much in demand in Western Europe. Liquefied natural gas, demand everywhere. Minerals, okay they’ve already had pretty tight controls.”

Since the natural resources targeted by China were already in demand in other regions, he outlined: “So I look at this and I say, alright, what they’re saying is. We don’t wanna go to war. So what we’re gonna do is demonstrate that we’re going after some things. That we know they are not important to you. We know it doesn’t hurt any aspect but we can’t lose face here. We gotta do something.”

Cramer believes that the restrictions against “Liquefied natural gas [are] the funniest one. Because the demand for liquefied natural gas is insane.” As a result, he believes that the Chinese reaction was “a statement which basically says Mr. President, we heard you, maybe we ought to sit down and talk. Now there are some people would say appeasers, I don’t want to use that strong term. There are people within the government who very much want a deal. I think the President very much wants a deal. They can raise the ten to twenty five.”

The CNBC host also believes that the Chinese actions suggested that they were trying to find common ground with the President. He believes “what they’re saying, I think is, you know what. Common ground here. We’re gonna hit you on some things that aren’t gonna hurt you. Let’s talk. And that’s what this is.” On the other hand, the actions against Canada were “very central to their country,” he outlined.

“China is basically saying, look, come on, let’s do some talking,” Cramer added. He believes that it would be important to hear next “is China going to do anything that lessens its friendship with Russia?” When asked why China would do that, Cramer replied “Well because I think that the President perceives . . . .the Russians [are] losers now. And the President does not like losers. I think he’d like to separate China.”

He also shared details about a potential difference in opinion in the White House over the Trump administration’s approach against China. According to Cramer:

“I think China, I just continue to believe that there are two camps. There’s the Navarro camp, his excellent book which talks about what China is about, which is we are at war. . . . And then there’s the China we want a deal [with]. And we don’t know where the President is. We just don’t know. We don’t know where he is. He’s got conflicting voices in the White House saying look we, some saying we’re at war, and some saying let’s deal.”

Our Methodology

To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on February 4th.

For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? 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).

Northrop Grumman (NOC): “Palantir Is Coming for Them” – Jim Cramer on Defense Contractors’ Uncertain Future

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 48

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) is one of the biggest defense contractors in America. The firm makes a wide variety of weapons systems and products such as aircraft, IT systems, and spaceships. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)’s shares are up by a modest 4.8% over the past year as while the firm has benefited from some profit raises due to ongoing global conflicts, investors have also been wary of spending cuts spearheaded by Elon Musk and DOGE under the Trump administration. Cramer’s conflicts tied the cuts to Palantir:

“And I think that this is a central and existential attack, ultimately, not mentioned on the call, on the companies that run our Defense Department. Now I’m talking about . . . I’m talking Northrop Grumman. I would not want to be those companies after we, they should read this conference call [PALANTIR Q4 EARNINGS] because this company’s coming for them. Coming for them.”

Overall, NOC ranks 3rd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of NOC as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 NOC but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

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