We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer Latest Stocks: 23 Stocks He Just Talked About. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against the other stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about.
With the Federal Reserve’s December meeting over, Wall Street has now shifted into a new paradigm. While the central bank did cut interest rates by 25 basis points in a widely anticipated move, the bank also signaled that 2025 might be accompanied by fewer interest rate cuts than many might have anticipated. In fact, not only are markets convinced that the Fed will cut less in 2025, but some even believe that the interest rates might be hiked especially since the central bank’s median 2025 inflation outlook is 2.5% which is higher compared to the earlier 2.1%.
While the Fed’s announcements and the press conference sent the flagship S&P index by 3.2%, Jim Cramer explained how the stock market as a whole isn’t doing that well. On the episode of Squawk On The Street the day of the interest cut, he stated “Look at the material stocks, look at anything related to industrial export. Look at the housing stocks. David, there are cohorts that are indeed rolling over. It isn’t like everything is just super strong and everything is quantum computing and Rocket Lab!”
Cramer added that while some believe that sections of the economy such as retail are strong, there might be a need to look deeper. “Look there’s this growing consensus not represented necessarily in these Fed fund futures but that just says why are they doing this? And I come back and say why are they doing this,” said Cramer, adding “So I think that the talking heads, and boy are there ever a lot of talking heads, have decided that look that if you look at what we’re seeing in some retailers, things are strong. By the way in retail, it’s not strong either if you count colds.”
Going against the trend, he stressed the need to look into the data to find the right stocks. According to him, “I don’t know where these people get that things are strong, they look at the aggregate numbers, I look at the individual companies, I am trying to find companies that are strong.” Cramer was also perplexed by the Atlanta Fed’s Q4 3.2% GDP growth estimates. He shared that he’s “trying to find why. I’m trying to find where that is. You know David that travel’s very strong yeah. Leisure’s very strong. Dining out’s very strong. These are strong and by the way, they’re very obvious, they look obvious to the Atlanta Fed. I don’t know what kind of weighting they have but wow.”
The American economy wasn’t the only economy on Cramer’s mind. While he might be having a hard time believing the GDP estimates, there isn’t a doubt in his mind that the US is the best place to invest. Cramer shared that he’s “trying to find countries, maybe Argentina making a comeback, but it’s very difficult to find a country that I would invest in,” but it’s very difficult to “find a country that isn’t upset in turmoil or something.”
Speaking of other countries, Cramer believes that China “is behind so much of what’s going wrong. But they are never, other than [BY] Peter Navarro, called out.” On how the “media and other coverage says that China is in a depression,” Cramer has “to believe it because I don’t believe a single number they send. We used to be able to look at their electric power. . . . .how about when they used to do employment of youth.”
One economic sector that he’s worried about is the automobile industry. Cramer doesn’t “understand why the problems with autos are not so visible among the cognoscenti,” something he believes is very important since autos “is a huge industry. Employs a lot of people. And the layoffs and the ramifications of what could happen here and other mergers.” China is “getting away with murder, they really are, they’re getting away with wiping out industries all over the world,” Cramer said, adding that “there’s only one guy who actually stands up them, and even he was saying that he has a good relationship with Xi. And that is President-elect Trump.”
However, on an optimistic note, Cramer believes that the “Mag 7 seems almost immune even to China. Which they never really got into.”
Our Methodology
To make our list of the latest stocks on Jim Cramer’s mind, we made a list of the stocks he talked about during a fresh episode of CNBC’s Squawk In The Morning.
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).
A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 158
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the most valuable consumer electronics firm in the world and one whose valuation could touch $4 trillion soon. As it generates 51.6% of its revenue from the iPhone, the iconic smartphone lineup is baked into Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s hypothesis. The stock responds to even the slightest of credible news of the smartphone either facing reduced demand or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) deciding to lower its manufacturing orders to contract manufacturers. The high valuation approaching a $4 trillion market cap and the iPhone’s criticality was also on Cramer’s mind as he started by discussing how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s high P/E ratio hasn’t dissuaded buyers:
“And people will not stop buying it. . . .Well David, I mean one of the things that’s happening is is there’s people who just say we’re getting away from the cellphone cycle.
“I say own it don’t trade it. . . it’s so far the biggest position in our trust. But I do think that if we can just get away from the [IPHONE] 17, or the 17 and 18, the 19, get away from that and make this much more of a service story. Now Tim Cook bridles if you say look, it’s Razor, Razor Blade. Because this is a tech company with the highest satisfaction. But I do think that if you could make it so that the service revenue is the thing and you’ve got China, without China orders [inaudible] so Apple’s no longer dependent on just China orders. And you get a higher multiple, but this multiple has to be followed up by a dynamite 2025.
“I mean I was going over my core holdings for tomorrow’s speech, and it’s still a core holding. I don’t know what to say. Would I come in and buy the stock right now? I mean I’d think I’d wait for a bit of a comeback, it’s just been, it trades like uh, Oklo. And it’s Apple. Unbelievably great company. I don’t know what to do. This is a total quandry for me. How do you tell people to buy Apple at that multiple when it doesn’t have that kind of consistency. And you have to believe that what they do have is a plan to be able to, so that they are out of the cycle business.”
Overall AAPL ranks 3rd on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL 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 AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.