We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 9 Stocks to Buy and Sell. Since Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) ranks 4th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer is exuberant about the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate cut.
“Believe me, there are few things more friendly than a 50 basis point rate cut,” Cramer said in a recent program.
The CNBC host said that he has reminded his viewers repeatedly that when the Fed is your “enemy” you should stick to recession-proof stocks that can produce consistent earnings despite market slowdowns.
“Once the Fed is done tightening and we start seeing signs of impending rate cuts you need to load up on the cyclicals, the companies that see massive earnings growth when the economy accelerates,” Cramer reminded his viewers about his advice on how to play the interest-rate game.
Jim Cramer has been talking about all sorts of stocks during his latest programs. In this article we picked 9 important stocks he’s bearish/bullish on and analyzed these companies in detail. With each stock we have mentioned its hedge fund sentiment. 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).
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Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 41
Experiential travel and cruise company Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer is recommending. When a caller asked him about the stock in a latest program, he said:
“This is a really fine company and will do well for multiple years because they have many ships coming in. Buy Viking.”
Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) operates about 85 vessels and offers unique cruise experiences on major rivers, such as in Europe and the Mississippi, alongside global ocean and expedition voyages. Its primary revenue sources are cruise and land (93%) and onboard & other (7%).
VIK’s demand strength stands out within the travel and leisure industry, driven by both capacity expansion and favorable pricing. In the second quarter, the company saw a 9.1% year-over-year revenue growth, supported by a 6.6% increase in net yields (cruise revenue per passenger cruise day) and an occupancy rate of 94.3%, indicating strong demand despite growing capacity.
Relative to its competitors, such as Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Royal Caribbean (RCL), and Carnival Corporation (CCL), Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) is expected to grow faster, with a projected growth rate of ~14% over the next 24 months. In comparison, RCL is expected to grow at ~11%, NCLH at ~9%, and CCL at ~7%.
All of this justifies the company’s forward EBITDA multiple of 10.6x, compared to 8.9x for its competitors.
Overall, Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) ranks 4th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 9 Stocks to Buy and Sell. While we acknowledge the potential of Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK), 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 VIK 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.