
Listen to Jim Cramer’s personal guide through the confusing jungle of Wall Street investing, navigating through opportunities and pitfalls with one goal in mind - to help you make money. Mad Money Disclaimer
Loading summary
Jim Cramer
On Fox one, you can string Fox's biggest moments live. Get out bigger. I can feel the sweat and I can smell it a little bigger. That was genius. Yeah, that's what we talking about. Fox 1. We live for live streaming now.
Fidelity Representative
Fidelity Active ETFs have the flexibility to shift and transform as markets do the same. So instead of just riding an index, they can seek to outperform it by adapting to market conditions and pursuing new opportunities as they emerge. And while you get the potential outperformance of an actively managed fund, you can still buy and sell it on your terms. Just like any other etf. Markets can change in real time. Make sure your ETF can too. Learn more@fidelity.com ActiveETFs before investing in any exchange traded fund, you should consider its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus, an offering circular, or if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. While active ETFs offer the potential to outperform an index, these products may more significantly trail an index as compared with passive ETFs. ETFs are subject to market fluctuation and the risks of their underlying investments. ETFs are subject to management fees and other expenses. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC.
Jim Cramer
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. I love you my friends. I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, to teach you. So call me at 1-900-743 CNBC. Tweet me Jim Cramer. Last night it dawned on me you can let one stop in this case Nvidia define the entire market, even if you like it as much as I do. Or you can let hundreds of stocks be your teachers. Now, on a day where the dow edged up 47 points as the advanced point 3%, Nasdaq gained 0.59%. We can indeed decide. All that matters is in video which reported but look to be outstanding numbers after the bell. Or how about this? Why don't we try to learn about the entire syllabus of stocks in the rest of the market for a change. So on any given day there's so many stocks that can make us money, yet they are devoid. They're forlorn of promot ocean of pizzazz. Those stocks matter though, even if they don't grab headlines like the love Nvidia. For example, last night we learned that Constellation Energy is getting a billion dollar loan from the Feds to restart three mile island breathing new life into the nuclear place. So people immediately reach for the most speculative junk imaginable. All sorts of companies that have no hope of turning a profit. They forgot that it is no longer the year of magical investing. But if you've been paying attention, you might have already owned some of the nuclear companies that actually do make you money. Consider the case of GE Vernova. It's building small modular nuclear reactors to provide round the clock clean energy. And those reactors don't need no federal government help. GE Vernova what it do today it soared 7%. It was the second best performer the S&P 500 in part because it also announced its first onshore wind power upgrade agreement outside the U.S. hey, I got another one. How about a nuclear energy idea that's in the S&P 500 that I know you've never heard of? It's called Solstice Advanced Materials. It's the chemical business that we just spun up by Honeywell at the end of October. Solstice mainly operates in the refrigeration electronics markets. But get this, it has this alternative energy services division that specializes in nuclear. In fact, it's the only American provider of uranium hexafluoride conversion services which is the crucial step in preparing uranium for enrichment so it can be used as fuel. It's the one to own Solstice Metropolitan Metropolis Works facility was idled in 2018. Why? Because of course there was no demand for nuclear power. But it was just brought back online two years ago to help power all these new data centers. Companies backlog was up a quick 12% from the second quarter to the third quarter. I know you're yawning, you're bored, I don't care. Unlike the hyper speculative stocks, GE Vernova is the nuke builder, while Solstice is a profitable company with a direct way to make money on nuclear energy. Stocks only up about 2 bucks from its post spin lows. It's inexpensive. Try that when you buy a lot of that nuclear junk. Or how about all these fintech calls? I got a fintech. How many? In the light we have three of them. Each time no earnings. Declining earnings. Well, what's matter with this? Hey, I got one for you. How about Block, which is the old square? At an analyst meeting today, Block just announced some aggressive growth targets for the next three years. Sharply better than expected. Block is a real profitable business and its stock wasn't far from its low either. Aided by a $5 billion announced buyback, this $38 billion stock ultimately voted 7.5%. Yes, it was the best performing S&P 500. Not bad. Just. Just beating out cheaper Nova. Now you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to bring on the cfo. Maybe you ought to learn something about it. Now I know that many of you can't resist the quantum computing stocks even after they sold off hard over the past month. Maybe you like to lose money. I'm against that. I would steer clear of the speculative quantum plays because the profitable companies with the best quantum computing technology are actually Alphabet and IBM. You could do worse. Why does all this matter? Simple. I am telling you that you need to go looking for opportunities. Because an all powerful stock like in video has started to blind people all over the place. Not me. You know how long I've liked it? As I always say, own in video, don't trade it. So I'm no fair weather friend? Hardly. But it can't be the only thing we focus on. Okay, so obviously Nvidia just reported a terrific quarter with a 5 cent earnings beat of A$25 basis. A monster revenue beat. Even better, their business crushed the estimates and management says they're on Track to do $65 billion in revenue this quarter. Wall street was only looking for 60. But what really matters isn't the size of one particular stock. It's the direction. And the direction of the stocks that I've just mentioned is determined by their profits. When we're talking about real businesses, everything comes down to earnings. Even if they rarely give you the quick gains that the high perspective names that were so powerful and so good during that era of magical investing. Here's the bottom line. The stocks I mentioned aren't exciting. They're not as interesting as any time touchdown from Christian McCaffrey or CD Lamb or a three team college football parlay or a Quantum stock. But they can be a heck of a lot more lucrative long term. In part because they're much less likely to blow up in your face and part because I did the homework for you and they're real good. River in Texas. River in Texas. River. Per Canalis. I don't know. What do you got? River? Hey, Jim, this is river from Dallas, Texas. How are you doing? I am doing well, thank you. River, how about you? Thank you for everything. And I really love your book. I really love your book. Thank you. Yes, yes. The reason I was calling, I have this stuff for almost three years now. Verizon VZ Communication. I had like 200 shares. What do you think? I'm going to liberate you from Verizon. Nope, I don't want you. I want you to scale out of Verizon. It does yield 6.7% but remember we like growth. Growth is what delivers profits only for us. I'd rather see you in a growth stock like a Solstice, a growth stock like a GE Vernova. These are what I like and if you don't like those I would suggest an IBM. But let's stake growth not just yield. Yield won't get us to where we need to retire. There's a world of stocks outside of my favorite stock in the universe, Nvidia and the data center stocks. They're not always as exciting, but they can be very lucrative. Well made money tonight. William Snow reported strong earnings and raised bottom line guidance. But investors didn't seem to appreciate the quarter at all. I'll get to the bottom of all this with the retailer CEO then Palo Alto earnings just crossed the tape. I've got exclusive of the cyber company learn all about the quarter that people seem to dislike on earnings day and like every other day and fintech company block that I just mentioned unveiled these GU numbers at yesterday. People loved them. I'm catching up with all the announcements with the company's top brass. We want to be in winners. Stay with Kramer.
Mad Money Announcer
Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow imkramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer Madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneynbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com.
Jim Cramer
On Fox 1. You can stream your favorite news, sports and entertainment live all in one app. It's raw and unfiltered. This is the best thing ever. Watch breaking news as it breaks. Breaking tonight, we're following two major stories.
Mad Money Announcer
Catch history in the making.
Jim Cramer
Gandhi means Freddy Debates Drama. Touchdown. It's all here baby. Fox one we live for live streaming now.
Comcast Representative
Streaming is changing the way we watch live sports. And your Internet connection can be the difference between catching the game, winning touchdown as it happens or hearing about it from your neighbor's cheers. That's why Comcast is building the network of the future. Using cutting edge AI and edge computing technology, we're bringing fans closer to the action in stunning high definition with ultra low latency. It's not just fast, it's game changing. Learn more@comcastcorporation.com Sports hiring isn't just about.
Indeed Representative
Finding someone willing to take the job. Count on indeed. Sponsored jobs to find the right person with the right background who can move the business forward. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Give your job the best chance to be seen with Indeed's sponsored jobs. They boost your post for quality candidates so you can reach the exact people you want faster and it makes a big difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 90% more likely to report higher than non sponsored jobs. Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs, you only pay for results. No monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts. Just a boost whenever you need to find quality talent Fast. Join the 1.6 million companies that sponsor their jobs with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com MadMoney.
Jim Cramer
Hey, what's happening with the stock of Williams Sonoma this morning? The furniture and home goods chain which also owns Pottery Barn and West Elm, reported a solid top and bottom line beat. First the stock jumped more than 4% but then it gave back those gains during the conference call when we heard that there might be a significant tariff hit this quarter, Williams Sonoma only finished in the red or today we spoke with Laura Albert, the President CEO of Williams Sonoma, to get a better sense of the quarter and what's next. Take a look. Welcome back to Mad Money. Hi. Ok, so Laura, we're going to get to in a moment why the stock I think foolishly reversed quarters. But let's talk about what was really, I think a breakout quarter on so many different lines, including your flagship. The comp stores were much better than anybody expected.
Laura Albert
Yeah, we had great success in the third quarter both on the top line. You know, our focus has been return to growth this year and I was so pleased to see all of our brands positive comp and we have so many exciting initiatives working in our brands. And then on the bottom, believe it or not, we were able to overcome the tariff pressure in Q3, which I don't even think we thought we would do. But you've heard me talk about our six point mitigation strategy. The pieces and parts are working extremely well and you know, I don't want that to be confused with the tariffs are not affecting us. They certainly are and in fact had we not had them, the margin expansion would have been quite great. We're offsetting it in Q3. That was wonderful and it's really a testament to the team really working together for all the things they've done, especially in supply chain, which we can talk about a little bit if you'd like.
Jim Cramer
Sure, let's just go tariff for a second. I felt that there were some in the Q and A with the analysts, some believe that more tariffs were a question mark. Now, I saw this happen with Gap at the last time Gap was on when they said it was a question mark. Stock went down ridiculously. It's just been a skyrocket ever since. What I'm betting is, is that people misinterpreted your cautiousness on tariffs with meaning that you thought the tariffs would go up a lot. And to me it was just, look, you never know with tariffs. And you even mentioned, hey, China got rolled back. I would like to hear from you that you did not mean danger, danger, but you were just saying, hey, listen, you don't know.
Laura Albert
No, let me tell you exactly what I meant in terms of where the tariffs are going. I think we'll get stability at the end of the year, I hope, and more predictability. And I don't imagine them going up. That is my best guess. Okay. But they are going to affect us more in Q4, Q4 than they did in Q3 because a bigger percentage of our inventory is now tariffed as the cost rolls through the balance sheet. And that is what I was saying. I was saying don't think that. Don't get ahead of us on our guidance and think that we can make up everything in Q4. We've said that our operating margin will be under pressure due to the tariffs. That was my point.
Jim Cramer
Okay. I mean, I can understand how some would be skittish, but that to me, did not. It was overcompensated for the stock versus you're gaining share in the industry. You're outperforming the industry. And I've got to tell you, doing well without housing, which a lot of other companies have not been able to do.
Fidelity Representative
Right.
Laura Albert
But let's just. On the tariffs, just say it one more time that the, the effective tariff rate this year is 30% higher than it was last year. Okay. That's, that's how much we've been able to make up. So I think what people should be really impressed by is the work that we've done to make up for the loss of the margin on the tariffs. Okay.
Jim Cramer
Right.
Laura Albert
And we're really, we're really excited about that because we're seeing even more opportunity as we go into next year because part of our tariff mitigation strategy was supply chain, but we didn't have all of the air ripping at the same time, too. So as we think about next year and we haven't guided and we're going to guide in March. We're going to be looking for all the things we can do to make up for the tariffs. By the way, once the tariffs are in the base, which is soon, we're done with this and you move on and you build from there. So it is a more short term situation than a long term.
Jim Cramer
Well, what are, what are you doing besides the excellent supply chains? Man, type A man. Is there like a greater scheme to make it so that you're immune somehow?
Laura Albert
Well, there is no immunity. However, here's what it is. The first thing is resource to the best country you can, the best vendors. We've been doing that. We've been moving things around. We have really cut our reliance on China substantially and we're going to continue to do that. The second thing is renegotiate with our vendors. So our vendors are great partners, they've been giving us better prices. The next thing is our supply chain improving. Our customer service is good for the, for the earnings because we don't have to redeliver. And we have seen a lot of improvements this year even on top of last year. And we thought last year was good, this year is even better on that. And then we have are very tight SGA that we keep looking at and reducing which will continue to be fueled by AI even more so next year. And then when you think about our made in the USA strategy, that is something that a lot of people don't have. We make the bulk of not the bulk. The majority of our furniture that's upholstered is made in Mississippi and North Carolina and that is a big advantage because it's higher quality and it's delivered faster and it's free of tariffs. So we're going to be building that. We also are trying some beautiful new product with some USA manufacturers and we're thrilled to see them off to a decent start on our websites. And then the last thing is we've been carefully increasing prices. So we've been looking at where we are underpriced and we've taken some price increases. We've also substantially reduced promotions and that's a really big move that we continue to make quarter after quarter to improve the regular price selling and reduce the promotional percent.
Jim Cramer
Well, we were. One of my questions was to ask you how do you keep your momentum without as much discounting when the other guys are discounting the heck out of it?
Laura Albert
We have a relentless focus on product, on innovation and exceptional quality and exceptional service. Because when you have a piece of furniture in your house for five to 10 years, a little bit of a discount does not matter. So we have to give you the best product there is. And we also want you to trust us, which the customer shown us that they do, to come to us to learn how to decorate, to make those big decisions for their whole home. And also whether it's, you know, a coffee machine that they have to learn how to make you rather come to us, we will stand behind it. We'll help you use it. And that's very different than a lot of the online players.
Jim Cramer
Definitely. Now, one thing that you look at all the piece on the conference call, there is no doubt that you think that we could have a stronger housing market next year. I'm going to just say you were flat out optimistic. Why?
Laura Albert
I am optimistic. I mean, how can it get worse?
Jim Cramer
Well, don't say that. It can always get worse.
Laura Albert
Well, okay, Well, I don't think it's going to. I think that you've got enough green shoots there. The desire is there for people to buy houses, and I think we are going to continue to see the customer getting stronger in their. And their willingness to do so. So, you know, especially for our customer at the high end, you're starting to see some better numbers there. It's the beginning. There's a lot of recovery left to do. If I'm wrong, then it's just going to make things a little more challenging for everybody. But we have done a better job than most against the tough backdrop. So you can only imagine what happens if housing picks up. It'll be a really, really big boom for us.
Jim Cramer
The last thing I have to ask you, I did not hear in the call anything about the. Your Asian Force initiative. Is it part of the supply chain triumph that you exhibited today?
Laura Albert
We did, we did talk about it in my prepared remarks. AI is something that's accelerating both our, our sales, but also our, our earnings because we're cutting costs. And I believe we're further ahead because of our relationships, but also because of our tech stack and our expertise and our high DTC content. And we are using Agent Force in 60% of our chats unassisted by humans. Higher ratings, faster, accurate. But chats are a small portion of the total customer service. You can only imagine when we move to voice because chats are online chats typed in. So we have a lot of work left to do to, to bring voice to AgentForce. And we're already seeing this holiday that we're able to hire a lot Less temporary associates. We have cut the amount of temporary associates that we hire over the holidays significantly because of our work with Agent Force. And then also Olive, our online culinary assistant, is part of that. And we're finding better ways to use Olive and also to have it drive sales.
Jim Cramer
Terrific.
Laura Albert
This is only one. Yeah. This is only one piece of our application of AI throughout our company. So there's the service level, there's the online, there's the homepage, there's the emails, there's every contact point, there's the design services, there's the back office, their supply chain. All these things that we're focused on as competitive advantages are accelerated because of.
Jim Cramer
Excellent. All right, well, Laura, you know, I think that, I think that the stock's going to go higher, not lower. It was just a momentary thing that you just explained everything. You explained everything to our viewers. And that's what I care about. That's Laura Albert, presidency of Williamson. I'm going to go back over her word. She explains what happened. Thank you, Laura.
Laura Albert
Thanks.
Jim Cramer
Jimmy's back.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, Palo Alto Networks is on the move after earnings. And Kramer's got the CEO to break down the cybersecurity's latest numbers.
Nikesh Arora
Next.
Comcast Representative
Fifth Third Bank's commercial payments are fast and efficient. But they're not just fast and efficient. They're also powered by the latest in payments technology built to evolve with your business. Fifth Third bank has the big bank muscle to handle payments for businesses of any size. But they also have the fintech hustle that got them named one of America's most innovative companies by Fortune magazine. Big bank muscle. Fintech hustle. That's how Fifth Third brings you the best of all worlds, going above and beyond the expected handling over $17 trillion in payments each year with zero friction. They've been doing it that way for 167 years. But fifth third also never stops looking to the future to take their commercial payments two steps ahead of tomorrow. Constantly evolving to suit the ever changing needs of your business. Big bank muscle. Fintech hustle. That's your commercial payments. A fifth third, better.
Jim Cramer
This ad is only 15 seconds. In that amount of time, there are likely to be an average of over 15,000 cyber threats to all businesses. So there's no time to wa. Get threat ready with comcast business@comcastbusiness.com cybersecurity.
Fidelity Representative
Known as the pioneer of Paso, Justin Vineyards and Winery produces exceptional wines perfect for enjoying this holiday season. Like Isosceles, their flagship Bordeaux style red blend, Justin Wines also offers unique and thoughtful gifts Pick your wine, choose a box and add a personal message icon or logo. You'll also find curated gift sets, library wines, magnums, even custom etched bottles. Start gifting today. Visit justinwine.com, and use promo code money20 to receive 20% off your order for a limited time.
Jim Cramer
All right, what do you make of these numbers from Palo Alto Networks, the cybersecurity titan that we own for the Chapel Trust. After the close discussion, put a modest top and bottom line beat. Let's check in with Nikesh, the chairman CEO of Palo Alto Networks. Welcome back to Mad Money.
Nikesh Arora
Thank you, Jim. Nice to see you again.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so Nikesh, I'm not going to get into the why is the stock down nonsense because I have found that every time it's down, people should just buy it. Let's get a little more. Let's get a more granular. I notice once again the platformization is working tremendously. You have $100 million large U.S. telco provider. Will that just be everything that they need is Palo Alto?
Nikesh Arora
Not yet. That's just 85 million of that is our EX IM product, which I told you before is our blockbuster product which is a next generation sim and that has helped us cross close to 470 customers from a standing start of 0 two and a half years ago. So really excited about that.
Jim Cramer
And a U.S. cabinet agency customer purchased 60,000 seats. And it's Palo Alto's that's a gigantic piece of business.
Nikesh Arora
And actually we replaced one of your other favorite companies from there and were able to deploy Palo Alto in the sassy product categories. Really excited about that. Still trying to get myself up in the rankings of the Jim Cramer likes us.
Jim Cramer
There's four to nine other companies, the S&P 500. I also like to I play no favorites. I would. All right, so let's talk about this acquisition tonight which is observability, which I now realize is pretty much what you have to have. But this is a married to observability. Explain why we need this as Palo Alto shareholders.
Nikesh Arora
Well, look Jim, if you look at what's happening in the world as we get more and more online, as we get more and more connected, you have applications being used by people on their phones on a constant basis. Anytime that application shuts down, goes down for a minute, that's lost revenue. You want your car hailing app to work, you want your restaurant app to work to make sure that these things are all working across the entire stack and to find what's broken, you need this product called Observability Every solution that exists in the market right now is three times more expensive than what Chronosphere can deliver. That's why many customers don't deploy end to end observability. Because expensive. Even we at Palo Alto used to shut it down because it's too expensive. We just used to sample. So now with Chronosphere's capability, they can deliver cost effective at scale observability which every born in the cloud and every AI model company needs. In fact they have proven this. They are the partner for one of the large LLMs that you know out there. They've basically gone in and replaced the existing vendor. They're slowly transitioning to Chronosphere. This company grew ARR above our expectations from the time you started talking to them till the time we're announced assigning a deal today. So really excited about it. This is a foundational block for any long term AI capability that you want to build from an application perspective. And this is going to disrupt an industry that's out there called observability.
Jim Cramer
Wow.
Nikesh Arora
And then we're going to marry that with an agentic platform where you say okay, now you found it, can you fix it? Agents are going to start fixing these things, but to fix it you need the data. So they have all the data working with the customers. Customers can take that data, we'll do the analytics for them, tell them what's broken and that capability will then be built into agents to go fix it. So it's really a foundational block in the enterprise from a data perspective can be more excited about this.
Jim Cramer
Can you help stop when a hacker is using another company's AI against it. For instance, I thought that this anthropic AI people just say oh, another hack. I thought this was truly scary. I mean I do not want them hacking anthropic AI to because that's very powerful. It's like a nuclear weapon.
Nikesh Arora
Well, I think the way to understand is as the attack you're talking about was where AI was used as an assistant to move faster and attack a company. So it's basically like everything was well, AI can do this faster for us. Well AI bad guys, you say well AI help me attack this company. So it went and scanned the company, it went and found the mistakes. It went and said I'm going to go enter this way, let me try the other way. Let me try the other way. So all this means is companies need to improve their security stack faster. There is no more time left where bad guys are going to find the stuff Faster than you are going to be protected unless you have the right platform to protect it. You cannot solve this problem with 50 point products. You have to have a comprehensive platform. This just plays right into something I've been you and I've been talking about non platformization Companies need to modernize their security infrastructure yesterday.
Jim Cramer
Now when cyber are closed or maybe you can do it now. I have to believe that they have some of the biggest banks because the banks can't afford to have their CEO be hacked. Are there any of those large banks that need Palo Alto that you are not in yet?
Nikesh Arora
Well, they can always have more business with every other banks because many of the banks are do a combination of Palo Alto, some other vendors and some stitch your own. So look, I think this is a, this is a marathon, not a sprint. We've been able to show that every quarter we're able to get 50 or 60 customers to go put a platform into place. Every time those customers platformize, every one or two years or three years we go in and expand our base with them. From a land and expand perspective. Look Jim, I'm really excited about where our business is. There is persistent tailwinds from a cybersecurity perspective. Every day there's a new reason why you should go and robustify and modernize your cyber infrastructure. We have validated that we are in pole position in the industry. We're the only ones who can go out and give you a much larger solution. Honestly, half the vendors can't spend $85 million because they don't have the product portfolio. So from our perspective, we like the platform strategy, we like the tailwinds that are out there. And we've just gone and planted a flag in two new categories called identity and observability. It's kind of like I was talking to my team and joking like this is 2018 for Nikesh. Nikesh is back to the future. I'm going to go make sure that we can go take this business and take it up a few multiples from where it is today in the next five years.
Jim Cramer
Okay. So I always felt Splunk had great observability and now that was purchased by Cisco. Will you guys be going head to head?
Nikesh Arora
We should be replacing every one of their observability customers because that technology was designed many years ago. Chronosphere is 2 1/2 years old. They built it on a brand new stack that is very AI ready. I don't think some of the legacy products in the industry translate to the new AI stack and what it needs.
Jim Cramer
Well, I mean, but obviously you would think that everybody, when you buy Splunk, you keep it fresh. I mean I can't believe that they just let it fallow.
Nikesh Arora
Well, I don't know. I'm not paying attention where I go. That's a good idea.
Jim Cramer
Okay, about what? How's that relationship with IBM? Because it looks like that you crushed it with that one. I know people's eyes glazed over when it was announced, but IBM certainly didn't feel like that. It's been terrific.
Nikesh Arora
Look, we've had a phenomenal partnership with Arvind and his team. We were able to take their curated portfolio, modernize that portfolio. We worked together pretty much in every customer of curator together, try and get them to the new stack. IBM is as you know, is very sort of forward leaning and thinking on the quantum space. And Arvin and I had a long conversation about quantum. That is another area, Jim, where we're going to be hearing more and more in the next few years. As quantum computers get more and more sort of imminent. You're going to find that enterprises are scared that all the cryptographic inventory will need to be figured out. Keys are going to be crackable using quantum computer. In fact, we know there's a strategy called sort of, you know, get the data now and decrypt later. So harvest now, decrypt later. You can collect data today, you can use a quantum computer tomorrow to break that data to see what's in it. So we think quantum becomes the next category where we have to go pay attention to. And there is no better part of the IBM to work on that.
Jim Cramer
Couldn't agree more. They're the way to play quantum, so to speak. Now lasting Cloudflare, it kind of happens and goes away. But Cloudflare was a real, I felt a shield. What did you hear about that?
Nikesh Arora
You know Jim, you keep asking me about other companies. I want to tell you how excited I am about the networks business.
Jim Cramer
Funny, I like football. When they're, let's say they're going to play the cowboys. I ask them what do they think of the cowboys and they just come right back and they say I don't care about the cowboys. Where the Eagles. You're very shrewd way to be able to analyze other companies. Just keep going back.
Nikesh Arora
My job is to make sure that we make this the best security company in the world. Running Palo Alto Networks is complex enough. Making sure that we serve our customers with best security outcomes is hard enough. I know there's going to be other great Cybersecurity companies out there, they will solve problems and I wish them good luck and Godspeed. And I hope they do well as well because it's important that our customers get a secure outcome every time.
Jim Cramer
Nikesh Arora, CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto Networks, Congratulations on a great quarter. How about that?
Nikesh Arora
Thank you, Jim. It was a good cord and I hope we can have some more.
Jim Cramer
All right, everybody's back into the break.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, Block has been shut out from the market's rally this year, but could its investor day be the catalyst it needs to get going again? Kramer is checking in next.
Jim Cramer
Today we got some great news from Block, the financial technology company forming on a square. Today, Block held an investor day event where the commentary sent the stock up 7.5%. Let's dig deeper with Amrita Ahuja. She's the CFO and CEO of Block.
Nikesh Arora
Welcome back.
Amrita Ahuja
Thanks so much for having me on, Jim.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so I mean, I'm watching the stock while I'm listening the presentation and it just shoots up. When you talk about how you could have a three year rule of 40 situation, we are big believers in that because what it means, of course is you've got great growth and profitability. How are you able to pull off and make goals that far out?
Amrita Ahuja
You know, Jim, the company that Block is today is very different from the company that we were just three years ago when we did our last investor day. We are more mature, more disciplined, more focused and more interconnected than ever across our brand Square Cash app and afterpay. And you see that coming through in our numbers. We're double the size that we were three years ago. From a gross profit perspective, we're triple the size. From an EBITDA perspective. The momentum and product velocity across our business we believe is going to compound further growth ahead. And that's what underpins this strong guidance today. When we look across S&P 500 companies, we see that we're only one one of only 24 companies that has the scale, the growth and the margins that we have. That's rare company and we want to continue to build upon this progress that we've shown.
Jim Cramer
Let's dig down on that because when I was examining your company, I was shocked to find you've had remarkable growth with 30% compound annual growth since 2020, you're talking about 2.7 billion to more than $10 billion in growth. I don't get it. What do you think is missing that you had to have an analyst day to tell people about this incredibly inexpensive Stock versus the other tech fin stocks.
Amrita Ahuja
Well, we think the underlying fundamentals were disconnected from our stock price. That's part of why we upped our stock repurchase authorization by $5 billion today. That's why we're incredibly excited about the momentum that we have exiting this year on a path to rule of 40, which has been our target for some time. And as we head into 26 and look at the three years compounding this growth with Active's growth in the Cash App ecosystem, new volume added, new customers coming in to our square ecosystem across the US and internationally. Increasingly seeing these two brands working together, which really is the differentiation of block, we sit at the counter in between a consumer with Cash App and a seller with Square. And the power of that, the demand generation that we can create for sellers, the incentives that we can bring to consumers to power our local neighborhoods is the true vision of block. And that's what we saw on display today.
Jim Cramer
Let's talk about, talk about neighborhoods because you dropped that. But people should know about this. I thought this is one of the most exciting local initiatives I've heard in a very long time.
Amrita Ahuja
What we want to do, what we've always wanted to do is empower people into the economy and that includes small and medium sized businesses. And if you think about the small and medium sized business, the tools that they have relative to the giant enterprise businesses who have their own apps or her giving substantial stakes of their revenue to the marketplaces of the world. What Cash App can do in creating a seller profile that then immediately connects to 58 million monthly actives, highly engaged actives within Cash app and that 1% processing fee for that. So for those sellers, we think that's a really powerful marketplace that we uniquely can create. Now we're going to start small as we always do. Hopefully there's sellers in your own neighborhood that are lit up and you can touch and feel that product today. But we see that there is a lot more to come.
Jim Cramer
So what would someone, one of the 58 million you mentioned, that's incredible number of people, what could they get from someone, say who has, who uses square as a point of sale? What kind of discount? What are you envisioning here?
Amrita Ahuja
So the seller gets a 1% processing fee, which we know is a fraction of what a typical processing fee would be. That's incredibly compelling. What the consumer gets is cash back, local cash back that they can use at any square seller. Some of that will be funded by us, some of it will be funded by square sellers. In our early Testing we've seen incrementality is really strong here. And we also see that when we add more seller, more sellers on one side of the ecosystem, that benefits consumers. When we add more consumers, that benefits our sellers. This is the flywheel of the two sided ecosystem that we're building now.
Jim Cramer
Point of sale has been at times a football business, meaning it's basically someone comes in with a lower price, you might rip out another and take in the new one. How are you able to keep your sticky?
Amrita Ahuja
Our point of sale, ultimately what we see is retention is strong and as we grow more cross sell. So as customers take more and more of our products on, retention meaningfully increases and ARPU meaningfully increases. So what we need to be doing is ensuring that our customers understand the full scope of everything we offer. From not just payments and point of sale, but to hardware, software, loyalty, marketing and financial services products. We know square loans and square banking products really help these small businesses manage their finances, their cash flows, their working capital. And so the more we can bring that to our sellers, the better. I think manager bot that you saw for the first time today, which is building upon square AI, brings that to life with proactive intelligence and helps our sellers manage their business better. That should lead to stronger retention, that should lead to stronger gross profit for us.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so let's talk about the bitcoin element of it. I've always felt that the company itself just is a juggernaut. But when I bring it up, people say, oh yeah, that's a bitcoin. It did bitcoin mining. I would like to be able to say that you have that optionality, but that's not necessarily how you should be looking at the company. Is that fair?
Amrita Ahuja
You know, bitcoin is a long term thesis for us that the world needs an open protocol for money. If there's a better open protocol for money, we're very open to that. But we think bitcoin is the leading contender because it is open, it is transparent, it is secure, it's been battle tested for years now. And we believe the world needs and will be a better place with an open protocol for money. Because it reduces frictions for oftentimes the most disadvantaged. And it enables us as a company to move at the speed of the Internet. If we look more globally now, we start small with everything, we're disciplined and our initiatives are calibrated to the size and scale of the bitcoin ecosystem today. But we do see a potential growth opportunity here.
Jim Cramer
But when I think about the company, what I want to think about to me is the cash app is is square point of sale. It's about the potential of those two together and it's about the remarkable growth that those have given you that somehow you have not been able to bring out in terms of what investors want until today, which look, you're a great spokesperson for the company and I think it was electric what happened today, but I want to know why it hasn't been electric. And maybe what I should do is just forget that and just think forward. I mean, I do need help here because the story is too good.
Amrita Ahuja
Well, we are incredibly excited about the Runway ahead, Jim. If we think about the addressable gross profit opportunity, carving everything down to the, the particular markets we serve, the particular products that we have, that's a half a trillion dollar market. That's $500 billion and we are 2% penetrated in that market today. We believe we're executing on all cylinders. Our product velocity is accelerating. We've got a leadership team that's bringing that to market in our go to market evolution. And we're excited to gain share and to grow even faster than these large markets that we serve.
Jim Cramer
Well, I think it's interesting that you were the leading performer in the s and P500 today as people realize maybe this company has a lot more growth than anybody realized. So I say congratulations to you, Amrita, because it was really some fantastic day.
Amrita Ahuja
Thank you so much, Jim. I appreciate it.
Jim Cramer
That's Amrito who's a CFO of block the symbols xyz.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round.
Jim Cramer
Next, Before we start the lighting round, I want to share that we've got a special offer to join the CNBC investing club. My latest research and access to the charitable trust portfolio. Simply scan the QR code or go to cnbc.com cranberry club to join today. And now it is time. It's time for the light round Craigslist events. Robert Colty and Abraham by citizenship leader Joel Coltsteadt. My stamp, various subscribers on the five planet sound. And then the lighting round is over. Are you ready, ski daddy? Turn the light around. Cause you might start with Bill in Illinois. Bill, yes. First time caller and longtime fan of your show, Jim. My question is. You're welcome. I hold a nice block of Kenview stock. Okay. Should long term shareholders be worried? Okay. It's a really important question because I've been looking. Kimberly, I think the answer is no. I think you'll be fine. There's going to be lawsuits. We've dealt with them before. Look at Johnson. Johnson up 50 when the lawsuits are bad. I think it is a good situation, not a bad one. I'd like to go to Todd in Florida. Todd. Yes. Thanks for taking my call, Jim. Of course the stock I'm interested in is nebulous. Okay. Nebulous is too speculative for me. It's losing money. Why not just go with Dell? Dell is a terrific company. Stock is down very big. Buy some now, buy some after the earnings and I think you'll be in terrific shape. And that, ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning Round.
Mad Money Announcer
The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Don't go anywhere. Kramer is getting a read on the state of the private markets with the top brass at Hamilton Lane to see where the sector might be headed in the months ahead next.
Jim Cramer
Well, we know it's been a tough year for the private equity stocks but because there's too much uncertainty about the economy where interest rates might be headed. But if you believe the Fed will eventually cut rates may maybe the group can rebound. They do trade unfortunately as a group. Which brings me to Hamilton Lane. This is an alternative asset manager slash consultancy for institutional deserts based in the Philly suburbs in Conshohock. This one's only down about 15% for the year, making it one of the strongest performers in the group. So let's take a closer look with Eric Hirsch, the co CEO of Hamilton Main. Welcome to Man.
Eric Hirsch
Jim, Thrilled to be here.
Jim Cramer
Well I'm so glad you're here because I want people to understand again that not all of these companies are the same. And I had Blue Al on this morning and they're totally good respectable company but they're under a lot of pressure and I think I said to myself good, I've Hamlin Lane on tonight and I have can have them explain what they do. And maybe we shouldn't all lump you guys together.
Eric Hirsch
I think that's the issue right now. The industry needs to be better understood because we are not all birds of the same feather. And so right now we are more of a solutions provider, manager of managers. We're not a single single monoline general partner which is what I think the market most associates the industry with.
Jim Cramer
So do you look for a fund that you want to then sell to others of which in that sense you're a bit of a fund of fund manager?
Eric Hirsch
We're a bit of that. We're a bit of a solutions provider where we're leveraging our relationships with all of the private market ecosystem to design products and portfolios for our clients to meet whatever their objectives are in the private market markets.
Jim Cramer
Okay. Would they be otherwise able to access the funds that you are accessing for them?
Eric Hirsch
So in some cases they certainly could. There are very big name firms out there that we're all familiar with, but I think the industry is much, much bigger than that. Today there's about 6,000 private fund managers all over the globe. And so most individual investors, most institutional investors just don't have the bandwidth to go out and find that deal flow, to assess the those managers and to build portfolios. It's just too big of a landscape.
Jim Cramer
Now it does seem that you've got what I call very sticky investors because they're different from the traditional gigantic institutions. Why don't you tell our viewers about how the mosaic that you have seems very strong in this environment?
Eric Hirsch
So our client base is hugely diversified, ranging from individual investors all the way up to sovereign wealth funds and everything in between. But most of them have made the exact same decision, which is they want Hamilton Lane to handle their private markets portfolio for them. So in that sense, we've essentially been an outsourced provider for them. They're not going to try to build what we have, 800 people, 23 offices around the globe. They're just not going to make that investment for a small part of their portfolio. They're going to use us as a partner.
Jim Cramer
Got it. Now this morning when I interviewed a Blue Al executive, it was not clear to me at all that they could necessarily have the liquidity needed if someone wanted their money out. Of course they said, listen, that's not a concern. But I find it sometimes it's harder that if you do a lot of say, real estate bonds, they're not going to go to 130, 140. I mean, there's only a certain price, there's a bid, there's an ask. What about the liquidity of what you're putting people in? Can they get out if they have.
Eric Hirsch
To so they can get out. But we're also very clear with people this is a relatively ill liquid asset class. And so we're never selling this to people by saying, hey, it's fully liquid, it's not. These are long term investments and we counsel investors, whether they're big or small, to recognize that you should be thinking about this from a longer duration standpoint. Our clients have embraced that they're thinking about this in 5, 10, 15, 20 year increments. They're not thinking about this on A daily basis.
Jim Cramer
Now I looked at the comparable of the competitors I'd not heard of them. I mean I heard of him. Language. I'm from Philadelphia but. But you do have a niche that I think is that you can dominate. It's not like you're going up every day against Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan.
Eric Hirsch
We're absolutely not. So the number of solutions providers out there is very very small. It's a much more of a niche business. So again we're not competing with the 6,000 general partners that are running around. We're not trying to manufacture deal flow. We're leveraging all those relationships and so for us it's a much bigger scale business. Jim we over oversee today trillion dollars of assets. That's a big scale business. It's very very global. It's very diversified and we're sort of leveraged off of that long term trend of more money continues to go into the private markets and we think that's.
Jim Cramer
A good thing which it seemed like when I looked at your portfolio. I mean it looks at your business. I mean it just keeps growing and it's not really. It has nothing seeming to do with the Fed. Nothing seemingly do with the up or down of the economy. It's just a growing client base and you make money from them.
Eric Hirsch
We're not tied to that. So changes in interest rates does not impact our business the overall economy. You've seen Hamilton Lane grow in good economic cycles and bad economic cycles more much more fundamentally driven around. Do investors want exposure to the private markets and do they believe that Hamilton Lane can be their partner for that?
Jim Cramer
Well that's to me a simple message not some of the convoluted messages I hear that that are to me discouraging for individual investors.
Eric Hirsch
This is our filthy roots simple.
Jim Cramer
I like it. Stay that way. That's Eric. He's co CEO of Hamilton Lane Hlne and if you're from Philadelphia this company is a big deal and if you're not maybe it should be a big deal. Anyway, thank you.
Eric Hirsch
Pleasure.
Jim Cramer
I'd like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and I promise try to find it just for you right here on Money. I'm Jim Grammer. See you tomorrow.
Indeed Representative
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 a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Cramer'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 welcome to Walgreens.
Amrita Ahuja
Looking for a holiday gift?
Jim Cramer
Sort of. My cousin Freddy showed up to surprise us.
Indeed Representative
Oh, sounds like a real nice surprise.
Eric Hirsch
Exactly.
Mad Money Announcer
So now I have to get him.
Eric Hirsch
A gift, but I haven't gotten my bonus yet. So if we we could make it.
Jim Cramer
Something really nice but also not break the bank, that'd be perfect.
Amrita Ahuja
How about a Keurig for 50% off.
Jim Cramer
Bingo savings all season?
Mad Money Announcer
The holiday road is long. We're with you all the way. Walgreens offer valid November 26 through December 27. Exclusions apply.
Date: November 20, 2025
Host: Jim Cramer (CNBC)
Featured Guests: Laura Albert (Williams-Sonoma), Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks), Amrita Ahuja (Block), Eric Hirsch (Hamilton Lane)
Jim Cramer delivers another energetic and education-focused episode, emphasizing the importance of looking beyond headline-grabbing stocks (notably Nvidia) to discover lesser-known, high-quality companies poised for long-term success. He spotlights actionable ideas in nuclear energy, fintech, cybersecurity, and private equity, bringing in top executives from Williams-Sonoma, Palo Alto Networks, Block, and Hamilton Lane to provide firsthand market insights. The episode includes the ever-popular Lightning Round and stresses the value of disciplined, profit-driven investing.
[01:38 – 08:53]
“You can let one stock, in this case Nvidia, define the entire market... Or you can let hundreds of stocks be your teachers.” — Jim Cramer (01:48)
“It's no longer the year of magical investing.” — Jim Cramer (03:18)
[05:53 – 08:53]
“When we're talking about real businesses, everything comes down to earnings.” — Jim Cramer (06:42)
“The stocks I mentioned aren't exciting.... But they can be a heck of a lot more lucrative long term.” — Jim Cramer (07:11)
[11:19 – 21:22] Guest: Laura Albert, President & CEO
“We had great success in the third quarter... our focus has been return to growth this year and I was so pleased to see all of our brands positive comp.” — Laura Albert (12:09)
“I am optimistic. I mean, how can it get worse?” — Laura Albert (18:27)
[23:20 – 32:08] Guest: Nikesh Arora, CEO
“$85 million of that is our EX IM product, which I told you before is our blockbuster product…” — Nikesh Arora (23:57)
“You cannot solve this problem with 50 point products. You have to have a comprehensive platform.” — Nikesh Arora (27:39)
“IBM is ... very sort of forward leaning and thinking on the quantum space. That is another area, Jim, where we’re going to be hearing more and more.” — Nikesh Arora (30:05)
“My job is to make sure that we make this the best security company in the world.” — Nikesh Arora (31:36)
[32:29 – 40:56] Guest: Amrita Ahuja, CFO
“The company that Block is today is very different from the company that we were just three years ago... more mature, more disciplined, more focused and more interconnected than ever…” — Amrita Ahuja (33:07)
“Bitcoin is a long-term thesis for us... but when I think about the company, what I want to think about to me is the cash app, is square point of sale.” — Jim Cramer (38:50)
“That’s a half a trillion dollar market... we are 2% penetrated in that market today.” — Amrita Ahuja (40:08)
[41:08 – 42:41]
“Nebulous is too speculative for me. It’s losing money. Why not just go with Dell?” — Jim Cramer (42:22)
[43:18 – 48:26] Guest: Eric Hirsch, Co-CEO
“We are not all birds of the same feather... we’re more of a solutions provider, manager of managers.” — Eric Hirsch (44:07)
“It’s a relatively ill liquid asset class... Our clients have embraced that they’re thinking about this in 5, 10, 15, 20 year increments.” — Eric Hirsch (46:21)
“We’re not tied to [interest rates]. Hamilton Lane grows in good and bad cycles.” — Eric Hirsch (47:48)
“Own Nvidia, don’t trade it... but it can’t be the only thing we focus on.” (05:41)
“Maybe you like to lose money. I’m against that.” (05:14)
“When you have a piece of furniture in your house for five to ten years, a little bit of a discount does not matter.” (17:30)
“Every day there’s a new reason why you should go and robustify and modernize your cyber infrastructure.” (28:06)
“We sit at the counter in between a consumer with Cash App and a seller with Square. And the power of that... is the true vision of Block.” (34:29)
“There’s always a bull market somewhere and I promise to try to find it just for you right here on Money.” (48:27)
| Segment | Time | |:--------------------------------------------------|:---------| | Cramer’s opening monologue: stock focus, Nvidia | 01:38 | | Nuclear energy & fintech stock picks | 03:53 | | Williams-Sonoma CEO interview | 11:19 | | Palo Alto Networks CEO interview | 23:20 | | Block CFO interview | 32:29 | | Lightning Round | 41:08 | | Hamilton Lane CEO interview | 43:18 |
This Mad Money episode delivers actionable investment insights by cautioning against herd mentality, spotlighting overlooked but profitable stocks, and extracting hands-on strategies from executive interviews. Cramer’s signature energy keeps it compelling while each guest adds depth to their respective sector outlooks. The emphasis is on real business fundamentals, forward-thinking technology integration, and the value of focusing on long-term growth over short-term speculation.