Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 10/17/25

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – October 17, 2025

Host: Jim Cramer
Podcast: Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer, CNBC
Date: October 17, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jim Cramer provides his fiery, in-depth take on the state of the 2025 stock market as the fourth year of the bull market kicks off amid skepticism. Cramer breaks down key earnings reports, previews the upcoming week, shares insights from his west coast interviews (including ELF Beauty, Salesforce’s Dreamforce, and PG&E), and closes with his signature Lightning Round and stock turnaround commentary. Throughout, his mission is crystal clear: help listeners navigate Wall Street and make money.

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Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. State of the Market & Bull Market Skepticism (01:39)

• Cramer opens with the observation that the bull market’s fourth year begins with typical skepticism and negativity. Bears and media pessimists remain entrenched, but “buying the dips” has been consistently profitable over the past 45 years.
  • “The real losers in this market are the skeptics who keep missing these phenomenal moves.” – Jim Cramer [02:44]
• Recent Market Action: The Dow gained 238 points with positive surprises from banks (contrary to early fears) and a strong American Express quarter leading a rally.
• Earnings Matter Most: Cramer reiterates his central investing thesis—focus on companies and earnings, not just indices.
  • “Earnings, not anything else, are what really drive stocks lower, or in this case, higher.” [08:46]
• Preview of Next Week’s Earnings: Major companies reporting include Cleveland Cliffs, Zions Bancorp, Coca-Cola, GE Aerospace, Capital One, Vertiv, G for Nova, Tesla, IBM, Freeport McMurray, T-Mobile, Honeywell, Blackstone, Ford, and consumer data with the CPI report.

2. Interview: ELF Beauty CEO Tarang Amin (13:15–20:55)

• Rapid Growth and Expansion: ELF celebrates the launch of its new “Rode” brand and significant expansion into Dollar General stores, bringing beauty to underserved, rural communities.
  • “60% of the people who are buying Elf at Dollar General had never bought cosmetics here before.” – Tarang Amin [13:43]
• Tariff and Supply Chain Management: Despite heavy reliance on China and tariff concerns, ELF has weathered adversity with supply diversification and minimal price increases.
  • “Even in the face of 55% tariffs, we only took our prices up $1 because we really conscious who ate.” – Tarang Amin [18:10]
• Online Presence & Gen Z/Alpha Dominance: ELF’s agility—100 marketing campaigns/year, viral TikTok moments, leading positions in multiple generations, and global expansion.
  • ELF’s Power Grip Primer “mega” version sold out in 3 minutes on TikTok Shop [16:02]
  • “Elf Cosmetics was their number one brand amongst teens for a record eight consecutive surveys.” – Tarang Amin [16:43]
• Diversity & Inclusive Leadership: ELF’s board is among the most diverse in the country, and leadership demographically reflects its customers.
  • “Our team reflects the communities we serve. … My CMO sometimes terrorizes me, dragging me onto TikTok Live.” – Tarang Amin [19:45]
• Takeaway: Cramer remains a strong supporter: “This is a stock we have back now since it was at $15. And I wish I had been even stronger recommending it.” [20:38]

3. Salesforce at Dreamforce: AI and Growth Guidance (22:18–30:51)

• Dreamforce Recap: Cramer details the mood at Salesforce’s annual mega-event, focusing on AI platform Agent Force.
• Wall Street Doubts: Despite Salesforce’s historical growth (from $300 million in 2005 to $41 billion today), the stock is down 29% YTD due to stagnating single-digit revenue growth and uncertainty around monetizing AI.
• Investor Day Surprises: Salesforce unveiled a bold 2030 revenue target of $60 billion (much higher than expected), and a compound annual growth rate of 10%+.
  • “The 2030 revenue target was better than expected … meaningfully higher than expected.” – Jim Cramer [26:46]
  • Announced $7 billion stock buyback (about 3% of shares).
  • “For me, the mere announcement of this ambitious revenue target felt like a turning point for Salesforce.” – Jim Cramer [29:00]
• Skepticism Remains: Some analysts call the projection “aspirational.” Cramer admits, “The proof will be in the proverbial pudding,” but is more encouraged and plans to stick with Salesforce despite the enterprise software sector’s malaise.
  • “If you want to own Salesforce, you need to have faith in Marc Benioff’s ability to deliver … patience is needed.” – Jim Cramer [30:38]

4. Lightning Round (40:44–43:30)

Fast-paced viewer Q&A on individual stocks:

• Carnival – Cramer’s positive: “I’d be throwing that. I like Royal too.” [41:05]
• I-Ren (Bitcoin miner/data center play) – Strongly negative: “You are going to sell iron and throw another one. … I am looking for insider selling to descend upon this group.” [41:44]
• C3AI – On pullback: “You’re getting opportunity. I can’t stop it. I don’t know what’s the matter.” [42:02]

5. Utility Sector Deep Dive: PG&E CEO Patty Poppy (31:48–40:41)

• Addressing Wildfire & Regulatory Risks: New legislation in California caps PG&E’s wildfire liabilities, lowering risk to investors.
  • “That cap … lowers the risk to investors by billions of dollars.” – Patty Poppy [32:23]
• Investment and Safety Initiatives: Over $2.9 billion invested in wildfire-safe infrastructure; AI-enabled cameras and buried power lines reduce risk and cost.
• Clean Energy Transition: Extended operation of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, capacity expansion, and ability to support massive data center and EV growth. California’s grid is underutilized and robust.
  • “Our 10 gigawatts of applications could result in a reduction in all customers rates of 10%...” – Patty Poppy [35:09]
• On Reducing Customer Rates: “Our rates are down. Our rates will have dropped three times, in fact, four times by the end of this year from 2024.” – Patty Poppy [36:40]
• Wildfire Prevention & Community Hardening: Partnering with local communities and using technology to predict failures, emphasizing the need for improved building codes and defensible spaces.
• Cramer’s Take: The utility’s risk profile has changed—“If the liabilities cap, I don’t know how you not buy this one.” [40:41]

6. Turnaround Stories: Starbucks & Nike (43:50–48:05)

• Patience with Turnarounds: Cramer urges listeners not to give up on stocks in turnaround mode like Starbucks and Nike.
  • “I love turnaround stories, but good turnarounds take time and a lot of people give up about six to 18 months in...” [43:50]
• Starbucks: CEO Brian Nichol is methodically fixing deep operational issues; “I see the analysts turning against him though … it is time to buy Starbucks, not to sell it.” [46:43]
• Nike: New/old leadership must focus on brick-and-mortar, innovation, and fixing China. Cramer remains optimistic: “This is precisely the moment when people want to give up on Starbucks and on Nike, which is why I want to be a buyer, not a seller.” [47:35]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The real losers in this market are the skeptics who keep missing these phenomenal moves.” – Jim Cramer [02:44]
• “Earnings, not anything else, are what really drive stocks lower, or in this case, higher.” – Jim Cramer [08:46]
• “60% of the people who are buying Elf at Dollar General had never bought cosmetics here before.” – Tarang Amin [13:43]
• “Even in the face of 55% tariffs, we only took our prices up $1…” – Tarang Amin [18:10]
• “Carnival – I’d be throwing that. I like Royal too.” – Jim Cramer [41:05]
• “The proof will be in the proverbial pudding.” – Jim Cramer on Salesforce’s new growth targets [29:48]
• “Our 10 gigawatts of applications could result in a reduction in all customers rates of 10% because the grid is underutilized.” – Patty Poppy [35:09]
• “I love turnaround stories, but good turnarounds take time…” – Jim Cramer [43:50]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Market Overview: 01:39
• ELF Beauty CEO Interview: 13:15–20:55
• Salesforce/Dreamforce Analysis: 22:18–30:51
• PG&E CEO Interview: 31:48–40:41
• Lightning Round: 40:44–43:30
• Starbucks & Nike Turnarounds: 43:50–48:05

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Final Takeaway

Cramer’s message is clear: ignore the crowd’s pessimism, focus on company-specific stories and earnings, exploit market negativity, and have patience—especially with quality businesses in transition. His bullishness remains undimmed as he navigates the jungle of Wall Street for his listeners, always looking for the next big opportunity.

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome Bad Money. Welcome to Kramerica friends. I'm just trying to make a little money. My job is not just to entertain, but to put it in context. Do some teaching here, so call me 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me. Jim Cramer the fourth year of the bull market begins just as the third ends with skepticism, with disbelief and contempt for the bulls. Of course, that's been the hallmark of the entire run, hasn't it? The conventional wisdom says that the true believers are either frauds or mount bunks or morons. People embarrass themselves every time they do some buying into the dips. Never mind that buying the dips has made investors a lot of money over this run and so many others in the last 45 years. Now if you bought my new book, how to Make Money in Any Market, you know that I think contempt is a two way street. And the real losers in this market are the skeptics who keep missing these phenomenal moves. By the way, that includes today where The Dow gained 238 points, Sesame advanced 0.53%, Nasdaq climbed 0.52%. Why is that? Why does it mean that you missed something? Because look, this morning the market at around 6am it seemed like it was going to be down 1% from the get go because of worries about bad loans at banks. But by the time we open, we heard from a series of banks that we're doing fine and we got a spectacular quarter from American Express that fueled still one more rally as the anticipated decline predicated on bad bank loans didn't surface. Why do the Bears keep being betrayed by the market? I think it's because the pessimists and their buddies in the media tend to lose track of what they're investing in. Not the S&P 500, the index itself, but the companies in it. If you only put your money in index funds, it's hard to see. But once you get your hands dirty with individual stocks, you find that those companies are simply doing way too well just by such a high level of negativity as you hear about and read about in making money. Which brings me to the game plan for the next week. Chock full of earnings reports that I believe will be much better than expected. Almighty, we are from Cleveland Cliffs and we need this dealmaker to tell us if the real economy is still holding up. This may be one that is a little too weak. Remember, there are three economies. The data center economy, the speculative economy, where I see lots of insider selling coming, and the real economy, which is heavily dependent on the Fed cutting rates. Let's see what Cliffs has to say after the close. Speak of the devil. We get results from Zions Bancorp, the regional bank that confirmed JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon's cockroach theory of bad loans made last month, last week. There's never just one. I want to know how Zions got defrauded, bad but not related to the broader economy. Good. And if we need to find out if they're seeing more weakness, why widespread weakness and they could. I've never really felt they were that good a bank. Tuesday Coca Cola GE Aerospace Report I think Coca Cola will put up its usual excellent numbers because it is the most consistent of the packaged goods stocks. While GE Aerospace, primary supplier to both Airbus and Boeing, will deliver another upside surprise from all the maintenance it does for these Air Air aircraft sleeper Dell stock 3M is expected to have a strong but unheralded story and Charitable Trust Club named Danaher, one of our biggest laggards, may report the first of many good shocking multiple year dry spell for this once incredibly well run company. After the close, we get results from another investing club number. Oh boy, is this a controversial one. It's called Capital One and I have to tell you I feel emboldened on this one. After that, terrific Americans press Quarter Remember this is another credit card company. Could be a good one the first quarter. That should take into account the acquisition of Discover. Boy do I want to be on that call. Wednesday we've got two data center stories. Vertiv, which cools the red hot data centers and G Vernova which makes the turbines that power so many of them. Gas turbines I should add. I believe vertical once again deliver an excellent number. Someone put out a sell this week on G for Nova and I thought that was absurd. But then again I wouldn't have bought this one for the Trust if I didn't believe it was capable not of a quarter or a year run, but a multi year move. Wednesday night Tesla reports and there's so much that Elon Musk has to say about self driving and robots that I barely care about car sales. Let's hope Wall street feels the same. Musk knows the drill. He will dazzle the faithful and explain why the biggest run of any major stock is justified on top of what's already happened. IBM reports too. I expect them to explain why the bears who don't think that the growth rate is up the stuff last quarter will have to crow. Hey, by the way, CEO Arvin Krishna has the best quantum computing campaign on earth. It puts all the speculative operators to shame and unlike something say like Ionq where insiders dumped 6.6 million shares, take advantage of a colossal run based on retail buying. With IBM, you really don't have to worry about a wave of insiders ringing the register. That doesn't happen. Thursday we find out if the awesome gold rally stole its legs when Freeport McMurray reports this company has the world's largest gold mine with the world's largest set of gold mine problems, including recent horrendous flooding in Indonesia. But if they talk a good game, Precious Metal could have still another rally. Next the streets get behind T Mobile again, which may mean that their Apple initiative they're the most gung ho about offering a low price for each iPhone iteration is coming in above the estimates. Be prepared for both stocks to run. Apple look good today, Honeywell reports. Doing this stock feels totally snake bit. Honeywell's break into three viable companies, including a Pure play aerospace business that I think is woefully undervalued versus competitors. I'm not saying don't worry about the numbers, I'm saying look through them because the breakup is coming and the stock's been hammered. We also get results from Blackstone and I feel this I find the Aspersions being cast against private equity to be ridiculous at this point, given how well most these firms are run. I think we'll see a particularly strong quarter this time, including from Blackstone, sizable data center business after the close. Ford reports. I want. Look, we got to find out how much damage this gigantic fire key aluminum plant will do to their numbers. If the numbers do come down, by the way, I think the stock could slip below 11. We've lacked big picture data of late, of course, because of the shutdown. The government and the whole exercise of dividing the market's fortunes is a little bit more fraught than usual because of lack of empirical evidence. But we're able to get some data on the consumer when the Bureau of Labor Statistics wakes up and gives us the CPI report on Friday. If we see a number below 3%, it's going to be huge for the market. Fully justify the remarkable decline in treasury yields to Finally, Procter and Gamble reports on Friday. This stock has been a real house of pain until the last two days when I started saying the proctor has bottomed and how to make money in any market. I spend a lot of time dissecting conference calls, especially the Procter and Gamble conference call because they're such fabulous explainers. I think they'll give you a terrific one this time and you'll want to own the stock ahead of time. Here's the bottom line. The bears will hold their nose and hide their eyes and disengage their brains once again as next week progresses because it should be another good one for earnings. And earnings, not anything else, are what really drive stocks lower, or in this case, higher. Leslie in California. Leslie Jim, I'm buying the book for all my friends this Christmas. Jim, a lot of people do that, but it's commercial enterprise on my part. How can I help? Okay, question. Airbnb buy seller, hold. Oh, I like Airbnb is chronically being denigrated because people don't feel that the app does well. Therefore, I think it is time to put your money where your mouth is. Air B and B. Remember, earnings are what matter most in the direction of stocks, not the index itself. Keep that in mind next week when the reliable names keep putting up some excellent numbers. Oh, man. Tonight we sat down with the CEO of ELF while we were in San Francisco, and I learned a lot about how this company is still in growth mode. Spike tariff headwinds you don't want to miss out on. Then Salesforce issued guidance at Dreamforce earlier this week that brought the bulls back into the fold. I'M detailing what the company announced and giving you my take on the multiple bear rates against it. And PG and E has rebounded from its lowest suit. Could the movie sustained. Don't miss my exclusion with the company's top brass. We'll also talk data centers, so stay with Cray Price. Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow imKramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer Madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneycnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Missed something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com Fox News is now streaming live on Fox One. The voices you trust, the stories you won't find anywhere else. This is the story breaking right now. FOX one. We live for lives.

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[B]

Oh, it's going wonderful. We just recently launched Rode, the brand we acquired a few months ago, founded by Hailey Bieber into also four North American doors. And it's the biggest launch we've ever seen in this.

[A]

So it was everything you said it was going to be?

[B]

Absolutely. And more.

[A]

And at the same time, one of the reasons I love you is I call it a barbell, is that you've also gone into Dollar General, which people may not realize is an inexpensive, fun place to shop, and they brought you in.

[B]

Yeah, that's right. And the thesis there was Dollar General serves the underserved. And so we felt that taking ELF into these rural stores, most of their stores are in communities with less than 20,000 people, we'd be providing the best of beauty to what otherwise was a beauty desert. And so far it's worked great. We they couldn't be happier with the expansion of ELF. 60% of the people who are buying Elf at Dollar General had never bought cosmetics here before.

[A]

Additive, I call that additive. Now you're doing quiet period. But that is terrific news. I thought of you the other day when the president had his fit and talked about maybe 100% tariff. And I say, oh my God, what? Well, what will our friends do at Elf? You probably have every single contingency covered at this point, right?

[B]

Well, I mean we've, we just finished our 26th consecutive quarter of net sales and market share gains. And we've done that by really focusing on value. So we have a very balanced playbook. We have pricing actions, supply diversification, business diversification. So we hope for resolution, but we'll be prepared.

[A]

Well, one of the things people have to recognize is that the gap between you and everyone else is gigantic. And prestige, the gap is Kind of insane because how much different are they in terms of what they are made of and what they're doing than you?

[B]

Well, I think that's one of the great things about ELF is we take inspiration from our community, the best products and prestige, put our ELF twist on it and introduce it at incredible value. One of my favorite products right now is the vitamin C C plus E ferulic serum. We price it $17, which is higher than what normal elf products would cost. But the only other thing, like in the market is $185 serum.

[A]

How are you able to do that? Sourcing? What do you do?

[B]

Well, we have a real advantage. I mean, we've been at this for 21 years, really making the best of beauty accessible. We have an incredible innovation engine, the way that connects to our supply chain. We have the best combination of cost, quality and speed. And we love delighting our community.

[A]

One of the things that shocks me is you open your playbook, for instance, you have perhaps the most exciting online presence of any consumer product coming. So I didn't want to say cosmetic consumer product and you just say, listen, it's got to be funny. Okay, there's the playbook. Why isn't anyone else adopting it?

[B]

Well, I think it's the speed at which we move. We do about 100 marketing campaigns a year and it's all driven.

[A]

100?

[B]

Yes, it's all driven. Driven by what delights and engages our community. I mean, we recently, just last week, we introduced a mega version of our Power grip primer. It's 50 times bigger than our Power Grip Primer, which is the number one item in all of color cosmetics. We sold it on TikTok shop for the same price. We do our regular Power grip primer at $11. Sold out in three minutes. And we now ask our community, what else do you want on mega?

[A]

Three minutes. Three minutes. That's extraordinary. People, people know what you're up to. And I know that because something I get very excited about. I know people think it's silly that I do, but the Piper teen survey has made our viewers a fortune. And sure enough. Well, tell, tell them how you finished.

[B]

Yeah, well, they just, they issued their semiannual survey last week. Elf Cosmetics was their number one brand amongst teens for a record eight consecutive surveys. And it's not just Elf Cosmetics. Elf Skin is a top 10 skin care brand amongst teens. Road just cracked as top five amongst upper income teens. And so we really have an ability of being able to engage and entertain that community. But it's not just Teens. We're the number one brand amongst Gen Alpha, the number one brand amongst millennials. So this multigenerational appeal, more and more people are coming to Elf and that's one of the reasons why we've grown market share 26 consecutively.

[A]

There are more countries that no one would think of that like Elf. You've again because you're fine. I mean it's yes, you're Britain in boots, but there's some central European countries that are crazy about your stuff.

[B]

There is. In fact, we're very excited to be introducing Elf into Rossman's in Poland following our successful launch with Rossmans in Germany. But we can also going to be going into Sephora and the gcc. So we're, we have strength across the entire portfolio and we're expanding our brands.

[A]

All over the world. Why did this. Do you think it was because of China that the stock had that dip and people thought that you were going to have to raise prices by a dramatic amount? Or was it what I told you, which is. I just think there's sometimes people want to pressure stock down, which, which revolts me, frankly, because you're a proven, great business person, but I can understand a thesis which just says maybe they have to take the price beyond where they're. Where there are core, core viewers, core audience, people can afford.

[B]

Well, we take seriously our responsibility to deliver superior consumer value. So even in the face of 55% tariffs, we only took our prices up $1 because we really conscious who ate.

[A]

The value, who ate it? Did you eat it or were you just. You were able to go bargain back and forth?

[B]

Well, I think it's a combination of we want to make sure we have superior value and the dollar covered the level of tariffs that were.

[A]

But you make. Again, speaking previously, we can't talk about current, but you were able to beat the street, even though you had to. You didn't have any, you must have had no drop off whatsoever when you raise the price.

[B]

Well, I mean we saw some unit drop off, but overall we're continuing to grow market share so more consumers are voting for us.

[A]

And you're still taking footage When I go to a different store, when I go to one of the major discounters, you're going to be bigger and the other guys have less you.

[B]

It's absolutely happening. At Target this spring, we went to 20ft of space where their number one brand with over 24% of their category, Walmart, took us up to 12ft of space. I think we're now their number two brand, but the most productive brand either retailer will carry. Actually any retailer that carries elf, we sell more per linear foot than any other brand.

[A]

Interesting. Now how about the go back what you mentioned about the different Z's and X, you are dominant in the youngest people too, correct?

[B]

That's right. That's right. We have most purchased amongst Gen Alpha. We have a great experience right now in Roblox. The number one branded experience experience that you have.

[A]

Very smart. I just always amazed that you know where to go. You go where the viewer, where the buyers are.

[B]

Absolutely our team. I think a big advantage is our team reflects the communities we serve. And so it's 74% women, 76% Gen Z and millennial, 44% diverse. And they have a real pulse of what our community wants. And there's also zero distance between our C suite in our community. My CMO sometimes terrorizes me, dragging me onto TikTok Live. And she'll go on and say, all right, you got the big boss now tell them what you want. And they're not shy to let me know exactly what they want.

[A]

Well, look, I love working. I cannot let you go without talking about something that just happened, which is Change the board game initiative founded by elf Beauty Grows Coalition championing inclusivity on corporate boards. Thank you for not giving up on something that used to be that was very important in this country.

[B]

Well, thank you. I mean we're all about inclusivity. As I just mentioned, our team reflecting our community, but so does our board. Our board, we're one of only five public companies in the US with a board with 2/3, women and 44.

[A]

I'm thinking about something. What? How is it that the most profitable company has the most diversified board? Because it's right. Thank you to the CEO of Beauty. This is a stock we have back now since it was at $15. And I wish I had been even stronger recommending it, man. Money is back into the break.

[B]

Thank you. Coming up, after four days in San.

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[A]

We just got back from an action packed four days to see if Francisco, where I spent most of my time covering Dreamforce, which is Salesforce's annual user conference to become a festival for all things tech and AI. That's why I did the show direct from Dreamforce on Tuesday. And we heard a lot from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff about the success of Agent Force. That's their AI platform that uses digital agents to more or less replace humans. But on Wednesday night after the market closed, we got some very big news from Salesforce itself. See, every year on the sidelines of this conference, the company holds an investor day and analyst session where they talk numbers, give you an outlook, and this time, whoa. The stakes were so high. Remember Salesforce? This stock has been a real dog this year. Like virtually every other enterprise software play, though going to that analyst meeting, it was down 29% year to date. That's highly unusual for me to remember that stock be that bad. It is a holding of our charitable trust. The entire enterprise software industry is under pressure from the somewhat nebulous threat of generative AI platforms, which have proven to be quite adept at writing code to the point where potential clients may just make their own software using AI instead of using, say, Salesforce. Now, if AI leads to layoffs, that hurts Salesforce too, because they typically charge based on the number of users that a given organization. It's called the SEAT model, but at a more basic level, Wall street simply not sold on the idea that Salesforce's AI business agent Force is truly working. Salesforce rolled out Agent Force late last summer and in fairly short order put the whole weight of the company behind it. I can speak Mark Benioff fairly often and for over a year now, always wanted to talk about is Asian Force, even though it was clear from the analyst meeting that it wasn't really ready for primetime in the Meantime, though, we haven't seen a meaningful pickup in Salesforce's revenue growth from Agent Force. Don't get me wrong, the company supported some very solid quarters. It's not like the business doing badly, but they're spending a lot on this incentive platform and so far we just don't know if it's going to pay off. Keep in mind, Salesforce has been one of the great growth stories of the past 20 years. In 2005, they did about $300 billion in revenue. This year they're on track to do north of $41 billion in revenue. That's amazing. Yet for the past five quarters, Salesforce stock, its stock has been stuck with and it's got. And that's because the company has a revenue growth rate in the high single digits. Not terrible, but definitely not what Wall street hopes for from this kind of growth company. Some of us even questioning Salesforce is still a growth company. So considering all the enthusiasm about Agent Force from Benioff and his team, I've been hoping to see that that growth rate move higher and it simply hasn't. It's been stuck in that 8, 9% range for the past five quarters. That's why the stock has done well. You can see that. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And that bothers me tremendously. Sorry. But that brings us to the Salesforce investor and analyst veteran On Wednesday night, the session began with a deep dive into Asia Force. But rather than focusing on how it can help customers, management went into detail on how the company has become adept at the pushing Agent Force to the point where it's bringing more business for Salesforce overall. And it gave us these really convincing examples. Consumer goods company accrued spend by 50% after adopting agent Force. Consumer electronics company that quadruple spending with Salesforce after embracing Agent Force. In other words, they weren't cutting back on spending, they were giving them more money. More importantly, management rolled out some new long term guidance which was very reassuring to investors. The headline was invested new revenue target for 2030 fiscal year more than $60 billion, which was huge. Why? Two reasons. First, the 2030 revenue target was better than expected. Going to the meeting, the analysts were expecting 58.4 billion in revenue for the 2030 fiscal year, which is more like the 2029 calendar year. So that's meaningfully higher than expected. Second, and perhaps More importantly, Salesforce's $60 billion target implies that the revenue will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 10% over the next four years or so. Again, Wall Street's been frustrating because the company's revenue has been stuck in the high single digits. But now Salesforce is blind that their growth will reaccelerate to the low double digits for an extended period of time. Maybe also that could be an under promise over deliver situation. It's a huge development and it's why the stock jumped 4% on Thursday. One Point is up about 5% for its single best day gain since May. Didn't hurt that Salesforce also committed to buying back 7 billion billion with a stock that's roughly 3% of the shares outstanding over the next six months. Management also said they expect to be a rule of 50 company by fiscal 2030, mean the revenue growth plus their operating margin would add up to more than 50 and that it's the higher quality version of the rule of 40 that we often talk about when it comes to enterprise software stock. Now look, this would be a huge fee to pull off and I think it will be. So we are sticking with the stock, which you can learn more about reading my weekend bulletin that I put out Sunday night just for subscribers to yes, our investing club. Now of course this isn't actual evidence of Salesforce making the comeback. As the great Frank szlehman, formerly of ServiceNow and Snowflake once said on this show, the guidance is the guidance. It's more of a sign of management's confidence in the future. Not everybody shares that confidence. Almost immediately after the fiscal 2030 revenue targets was issued, we heard from the skeptics, the Bears, the people who really are trying to control the stock impact players like D.A. davis's analyst Gil Lauria who called the target quote aspirational end quote and said quote we are not ready to underwrite a reacceleration to a 10% plus organic growth CAGR company or growth rate through 2030. End quote. HO in other words, he thinks that these companies are making it up. I felt the onus is Network or Dreamers. The onus is now on Ben Amperen Salesforce deliver against his lofty revenue projection. The proof will be in the proverbial pudding. Still, for me, the mere announcement of this ambitious revenue target felt like a turning point for Salesforce. As an extremely frustrated long term shareholder in this one, it was very encouraging to finally get a break from what's felt like a constant drumbeat of negativity this year, at least from the analysts bottom line. After spending the week in San Francisco much of that time at Dreamforce, I'm feeling a lot more sanguine about Salesforce's stock than I was last Friday. That said, if you want to own Salesforce, you need to have faith in Marc Benioff's ability to deliver on the long term term targets given his track record. His long term track record called me a believer, which is why we still own this one for the chapel trust. At the same time, patience is needed. Even though Salesforce's new long term guidance was positive. The enterprise software group is so hated, I don't know if anyone on Wall street will even care, at least for the moment. I don't know if the stock is snap back anytime soon. I'm simply betting that it'll be a winner over the next 12 to 18 months. Which means you can't afford to trade in and out of it because when you do that, there's a very good chance that you're out of it. When we get the eventual gains. I want to take some calls and therefore I want to go to Gary in Alabama. Gary. Hey, Jim. First of all, I have to thank you for the invite to New York a couple of weeks ago. That was really special. It was great. Wasn't that great? That was what we call one of the perks of being a member of the CNBC investing club. People should watch. It's not a static thing. I throw the world this thing. So does Jeff Marks. Be nuts not to subscribe. How can I help? I know it's fantastic. Thank you so much for all your help. Of course. Well, I'm a big fan of Metta. I have bought that stock off and on over the years and have made good money with it. But it's been bouncing around a lot lately. So a two part question. First, do you think it's a good buy at this price? And secondly, what do you think the chances are of a split in the near future? All right, I'm going to answer the latter first by saying I have no concept whether Mark Zuckerberg wants to do a split, but he sure was, he sure does want to exceed and having a 24 multiple in next year's earnings, which I can is an insult to this man to have a market multiple. I expect the stock which is off 80 points from its high to have a very big run here and I urge you to stay in it. And by the way, I also thank you for the kind words about the club when we brought Jensen Wong to members of the club only Salesforce new revenue target feels like a turning point for the company and I'm definitely more encouraged about their outlook now than I was before the week started. Money ahead. What do we got? California till the PG could be a big player in the data center build up, but nobody's talking about it. I'm here about the projects the company has the pipeline CEO and investors don't seem to understand the turnaround. Take time for everything. I'm detailing the action in Starbucks at night and why I'm sticking by these stories. For the channel trucks, of course, oil calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of the Lightning round. So stay with Kramer. For the most part, this has been a great year for the electric utilities with a few glaring exceptions. Take PG&E which is based in central in Northern California. Its stock is down more than 18% for the year. That's in part due to misplaced perceptions about wildfires. I think this one could be a bargain. Don't take it from me. While I was at the west coast earlier this week, we checked in with Patty Poppy, the CEO of pgd. Want you to take a look. Patty, I've got to tell you, I've always been concerned about the unlimited liability that you're that your utilities had. And it's kept me from saying bye. Bye. Bye. But you seem to have taken care of it since I've seen you.

[C]

Yeah. Look, our legislature took action. They know that wildfire in California is a risk and they know they need the investor owned utilities to be part of delivering clean energy goals and keeping the state safe. Therefore, the legislature took action which capped our liabilities in the event of a wildfire cause from our equipment which is not necessarily a predictable outcome because we've made our system safer. But that cap has actually been set on a date that actually backdates the date of the risk and that lowers the risk to investors by billions of dollars.

[A]

Well, are people just worried about the 2.9 billion that you have to pay? I thought that was going to be something everyone knew you're going to have to pay.

[C]

Yeah, look, what I, what we agreed to in that $2.9 billion of securitized infrastructure investment is that's to reduce wildfire risk. That's in our mutual interest. That allowed us to do that work for less for customers. And we're all about affordability for our customers.

[A]

All right? So if you're able to do that to get that cap, you're not going to have to issue stock. So I don't know when you took it off the table till 2030. I'm frankly surprised that this stock is still where it is.

[C]

Well, I might be surprised about that too, Jim. So look, I can understand from afar it seems like the risks are high. But what's most important is the physical risk on our system has never been lower. We have consistently lowered risk. We've buried our 1000th mile of power lines and we did that at a million dollars a mile less than when we started. So we're lowering the cost to make the system safer. We've got AI enabled cameras that alert first responders so they can be on four Blackhawks.

[A]

Huh?

[C]

Yeah, we've got Blackhawks. Look, we have an incredibly technology enabled safe system for our customers and for investors because those investors are protected by the AB 1054 construct and the Wildfire fund that was extended with that.

[A]

I think we're all pretty glib about Diablo Canyon. I mean I thought it was fantastic that you got 20 more years. I was afraid that these are the years that it's closing. 25, 26. I expect it to be done.

[C]

Well, yes, the state extended the plant by five years, but the NRC has given us permission to operate. And so now the state will have to take action in 26 or 27 to decide what to do. But look, California's growth is real. We have data center growth. We're up to 10 gigawatts of new applications for growth on our grid. We're going to need clean, resilient, dispatchable and 24,7 power. It's hard to imagine doing that without Diabolican.

[A]

Okay, well, I spoke to Hawk Tan yesterday from Broadcast Broadcom. He's a hard nosed business person. He made me feel like that there could be more power around than I think because I've been listening to what the hyperscalers have been saying. And like people are just saying, forget it. Larry Fink this morning, who is so good from blackrock, was talking about, look, we're going to have enough money to be able to have that infrastructure is going to happen. You were the first person who made me feel like, you know what, there could be a building boom that is needed 73.73 billion in capital that made it. So maybe I don't have to think that we're going to run out of clean energy. Data center energy, yeah, for sure.

[C]

Look, we have our 10 gigawatts of applications could result in a reduction in all customers rates of 10% because the grid is underutilized. Our grid is utilized, actually about 45%, Jim. That means that excess utilization, when we utilize the grid, more rates go down for everyone. This boom of AI right here in California, Silicon Valley, my goodness, I serve all of These tech companies, they're growing here. We get to grow with them. We get to power them and. And lower rates while.

[A]

Okay, then why are people still trying to bid? Yeah, I know. Look, I know power's low, cheap. Maryland, Virginia, whatever. But a lot of those states don't have any room. They're tapped out. And yet you right here have room.

[C]

Yeah, people were confused about that, frankly.

[A]

They explained it.

[C]

Our customers were confused. They thought we were out of power. In California, we've been adding capacity. In the last four years, California has added almost 20 gigawatts of new capacity. Capacity to serve. We've been staying ahead of it. You know, there's a lot of things that people think about California, but one thing that's working, the ciso, the independent system operator here in California works. They build. They direct the infrastructure to be built, and we build it. The state has been building infrastructure. That infrastructure is ready to serve now.

[A]

Some of it. Because sadly, I would tell you that we seem to have slowed down with EVs in this country yet.

[C]

Not here, right?

[A]

They're still buying.

[C]

Yes, we're still buying.

[A]

There's 49 states that they're not.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And there's one that is.

[C]

Okay, the good news about EVs, for every million EVs we add to the grid, that's another percent reduction in rates. Let me just tell you this, Jim. In the face of national rate pressure for electric customers, our rates are down. Our rates will have dropped three times, in fact, four times by the end of this year from 2024. So our rates are down this year and they're scheduled to go down again next year. We have implemented our lean operating system. The simple, affordable model is at work at PG and E. We're able to grow California, make it cleaner, and reduce rates.

[A]

Then explain to me why there are so many utility companies that say, hey, if it weren't for the data centers, your. Your bill wouldn't have gone up. Those people are dissembling. Those people don't know how to run an air. You know, maybe they're not running utilities.

[C]

All I know is our facts here and our facts on the ground are technology. Technology can enable growth and that growth can lower rates for customers. You have to do it right. You have to have a smart grid, and you have to have a grid that is underutilized, which ours is.

[A]

And you are still shooting for net zero energy by 2040.

[C]

Yes, we are.

[A]

How is that possible? You've got a good pastiche right now.

[C]

We do. The energy that we deliver to our customers. Customers last year was 98% GHG free. It helps to have a large hydro system, which we have. It helps to have Diablo Canyon, which we have. In fact, I was there yesterday with the team. They're in a refueling outage. Never been better. Working hard, making sure that that plant is available to run if the state so closes.

[A]

Okay, can you add another plant there? We know that the NRC is looking.

[C]

Positively if you do that well, today it would be illegal in California.

[A]

I know.

[C]

I will say the plant was designed for five or six units.

[A]

So you're not going to can't reopen Rancho Seco.

[C]

Look, Diable Canyon is a perfect place for California.

[A]

I totally agree and I'm thrilled that, well, it took 20 years to build and probably will cost even more now if you had to build it. So the last thing I wanted to ask you about is actually about fire. How can they cap you when it's. How can we not be sure with climate change that it's just not going to get worse and worse? I think you and I share the idea that there is such a thing as climate change.

[C]

Yes, we do. We do. And extreme weather as a result of that is real for us. We're living it, we experience it.

[A]

And they put homes.

[C]

They put homes.

[A]

Homes right next to the toughest areas.

[C]

Yes, but homes can be hard. And I actually think that's the next step for California. Look, we have continued to make our system safe. It's never been safer. We're not done yet. We're going to keep making it safer. We've deployed sensor technology this year that predicts failures. We use our smart meters to indicate faults on secondary lines that has provided significant advance warning of risks on our system. Then we're going to partnered with of course, Cal Fire, the best in the business fire response. So on those two bookends, there's a middle layer here that our communities are not yet hardened enough. We have to prevent the spread of fire. And that can come from building codes, that can come from community partnerships. Communities like Marin, not far from here, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, they're a firewise community and they've put in the defense of spaces and they've taken measures to train and coach residents to make their individual premises safe, their homes safe. People in California do not need to choose between having power and being safe. Our infrastructure investments, burying the power lines is the cheapest form of making those communities safe. And we're committed to continuing to do that at the lowest cost.

[A]

Well, let's leave it right there. Phenomenal at doing that. Just no one thought that this could be pulled off and well, I did, frankly because I remember what you did to your previous employee, this Patty Poppy PG&E CEO. Look, if it's. If the liabilities cap, I don't know how you not buy this one. Thank you so much.

[C]

Thanks, Jim.

[A]

Coming up, lightning doesn't just strike twice in Creamerica. Booyah. Booyah for taking my call. It strikes every day. Kramer is back in a flash with your questions. Next. It is time. It's time for the light round. Clervous Ralph Gomez talk about my social interior. And then the lighting round is over. Are you ready? Ski diet. Time for the light round. Crave red money. Let's start with Nick in North Carolina. Nick. Booyah, Jim. Happy Friday. Same to you, partner. What's happening? Hey look, after having a great third quarter, I wanted to get your thoughts on Carnival Corporation. I'm a buyer. Carnival. I'd be throwing that. I like Royal too. Hey, how about we go to Ian in Florida? Ian, Jim, how you doing? Oh man. Having a good day. How about you? Excellent. Absolutely excellent. Jim. I'm a four time caller, long time listener. All right. And I wanted to ask you today about kind of, kind of. That one spec like you talk about it is a bitcoin miner slash getting into the energy data center move. It's iron. Oh no, no. Iron. Let me tell you something. You are going to sell iron and throw another one. Now give it two for the sell side. Nbs. I am looking for insider selling to descend upon this group. And I will not be wrong. I will not be denied. I sense that I'm trying to get people out ahead and IonQ has already demonstrated my perspicacity. Take that and let's go to Ted in New Mexico. Ted. Hey there, Jim. Ted, New Mexico C3AI dropped about 40% in August. Well, you're getting opportunity. I can't stop it. I don't know what's the matter. Okay. And that, ladies and gentlemen of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Starbucks got a real jolt this week. It's best since Brian Nicholl was named CEO. Kramer's pouring over the stock and revealing if it's a brew you can believe in. Next. Booyah for the emperor of Kramerica, Honorable James J. Kramer.

[B]

You got me jumping around my office right now.

[A]

Thank you so much for all you do for us. I enjoy your show and I find it very entertaining and informative. I watched your first ever episode of Mad Money back in 2005 and I've been watching every single episode ever since. Don't miss Mad Money every night at 6pm Eastern.

[B]

Plus join the CNBC investing Club and.

[A]

Stick with Kramer around the corner clock. I love turnaround stories, but good turnarounds take time and a lot of people give up about six to 18 months in when they realize it's not going to happen immediately. You can see that right now in Starbucks and Nike. I'm getting the sense that many of you believe that neither Elliot Hill Normally Lord Brian Nicole is up to the task of saving their companies from the throes of failure. But all that does is make me want to double down for my travel trust. Let me tell you why. Earlier this week I met with Brian Nichols from Starbucks who spoke at Dreamforce with Salesforce's Mark Benioff when it was announced that Brian, who just turned around Chipotle, would become Starbucks CEO. That stock was in the mid-70s. It instantly jumped to almost 20 points in the news and over the next seven months the stock worked its way to $117. As it became clear that he was the right man for the job. Buyers pushed it up like crazy and the analysts did nothing to discourage them. Which is why it was so painful also that the stock came right back down to $78 before its recent run to 85 change. I know Brian. He knew that I love Starbucks, the stores, and that they had gone downhill. He knew I respected his work at Chipotle, where I had always had an open dialog with him. Brian never encouraged me to be as bullish as the analysts were. He emphasized endlessly that the turn would take time. I don't think he knew things were as broken as they were. That's not unusual. New outside CEOs usually can't see into the organization. They don't recognize the ride. What Brian only found was that the whole Starbucks story was based on having fewer people working and a reliance on technology to do the job done. For any successful, fast casual performer, it was a slippery slope that led to a crash. Some analysts now blame the stock's latest downturn on the slowness of the turn itself. I blame the decline of the lack of recognition from the analyst community that Brian wasn't playing upon. He wasn't under promising in order to over deliver. Starbucks was in no shape to promise anything because the entire organization had just been a wreck. Now at last I think Brian has his arms around what's been going wrong. He knows that staffing not technology is the answer. He recognizes that not all the stores can be kept open because their layout doesn't allow for a third place transformation. I see the analysts turning against him though, largely because they got ahead of themselves and that tells me it is time to buy Starbucks, not to sell it. Sell, sell, sell. Same deal with Nike the previous year took a good company turn it into an also ramp. He had a strategy, turned Nike into direct to consumer business with the best tech. Again with the tech and business will turn around. First, there was no need to turn the guy didn't hurt a good company. Second, shoes need to be tried on which makes digital problematic. Hey, by the way, it doesn't help that when Nikes are delivered to your doorstep they often get stolen. Now that Nike old hand Elliot Hill has come in, he needs to reinvent the entire business. First, he needs to go back to the old brick and mortar distribution network including Foot Locker, which is now part of Dick's. Second, he can't just go into the Locker and pick out old Nikes. To reintroduce means new science and innovation have to be developed which seems to have been obliterated under the previous regime. Third, he has to fix China, not a quick fix. Oh, and let me just tell you, there's still inventory within the system and that holds down earnings. But most importantly, he's got management and the rank and file rolling in the same direction because he was much loved before he left. You spent any time with him as I have and you know that's the case. This is another stock though that's been pulling back as analysts realize that the fast turnaround is impossible. Again, they don't seem to understand that turnarounds do take a lot of time. This is precisely the moment when people want to give up on Starbucks and on Nike, which is why I want to be a buyer, not a seller. Buy, buy, buy. Of both. I like to say there's always more somewhere. I promise I'll find just for you right here on Man Money. I'm Jim Cramer. I'll see you Monday.

[C]

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal or their parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, Internet or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer Greg's car shopping.

[B]

And since he lives in Florida, your marketing's probably pushing something a little sporty. Too bad you don't know he's planning.

[A]

A move to Alaska.

[B]

Turns out, Mark marketing without a clear picture of your customer is like driving a convertible in the Arctic.

[A]

A bad idea.

[B]

Learn how TransUnion's 360 degree view of customer identity is bringing clarity to marketing.

[A]

Chaos through deeper insights, smarter reach, and precise measurement.

[B]

@Transunion.Com clarity.