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Jim Cramer
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Jim Cramer
My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. Always a bull market somewhere. And I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. My friends, I'm just trying to make you a little money. My job is not just entertain, but to explain how we have such good days. So call me 1-873-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. The President of the United States is a living, breathing, talking lightning round giving you buys and sells rapid fire. You sure don't know if you had a diet. Sometimes, of course, they completely contradict each other. Doesn't matter. Wall street likes the energy, loves the ideas that are coming fast and furious. Which is why the Dow gained 400 points, 4.8points today. S&P advance 0.53%. House of pleasure. But the Nasdaq gains is 0.22. This is all new though, so we have to spend some time talking about how to handle it. This could be an ongoing theme, I think for four years, but we have no choice. I have to explain to you the way things are being translated from Washington. Wall Street, I want you to stay current and I want you to understand the presidential lightning round. So let me Say a few things about what I now believe we can expect from the second Trump administration. Not political, but money, economic. First, if you're a trader, Trump's a dream come true. He generates a huge number of catalysts every time he talks. I don't think most people should trade too hard unless you do it professionally, but this is heaven on earth for them. Second, there are analogs. When Reagan came into office, and of course, I was old enough to be trading then, he talked about building a 600 ship Navy. If you bought the defense contractors, you made a fortune. The difference is Reagan was not rapid fire. He was much more measured. But it's still the closest analog I come up with. Third, every time Trump talks, it feels like there'll be repercussions on Wall Street. Now, sometimes it's purposeful. Mostly it's to show he's more on the ball than his predecessor. Not kidding. So let's start with today's speech given in Washington show in Davos and the subsequent questioning by some executives about what he intends to do on certain issues. Trump uses speech to frame his presidency. Now, we know he wants to make America great again. Or for a given definition, what? The word great, that's always going to be his theme. But when he speaks like this, you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. Remember, this is mad money, not mad politics. It doesn't matter how you feel about Trump. It only matters if you can make money off him. That's what we're here for. Now, I know you could say, wait, wait a second, Jim. What do you like Cal and Steinbeck's east of Eden? Buying beam futures to profit off of World War I. As I see it though, I'm just trying to educate you about what's actionable and what's not. The big picture stuff is not what moves. The market might excite you, but it doesn't move stocks. Next, the President wants to talk about energy policy all the time, take advantage of what he calls liquid gold that's under our feet. I know this sounds crazy to those who don't remember what happened during the previous administration of Trump, but the oil companies actually started drilling. They pumped like mad and it ended up bringing the price of oil down and then really hurting their profits. Since then, they have gotten disciplined. They're holding back from drilling to keep prices high, and they're making much more money. Many of you might be tempted to grab an oil stock because Trump is so pro oil, but that would be wrong. As Rusty Brazil our go to energy Expert said just last night the oil companies pretty much operate as a herd. They got crushed last time when they drove the price down by pumping too much. But president wants Saudi Arabia and OPEC to pump more to get prices lower. It's possibility but the US controls the price of oil these days certainly more than the Saudis and opec. Our producers are disciplined so I don't see the world flooded with crude. Sadly, the drill baby drill stuff is uninvestable for the moment. If President Trump finds a way to get a pipeline bill quickly out of Permian Basin or if he can help build liquefied natural gas terminals faster and make it so FERC really loves them the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the then we can produce more of the stuff because there's a huge market for natural gas overseas but it's trapped right now. The Permian otherwise Wall street perspective non story but it is why I own the natural gas oriented co tariff My Chapel Trust though it's been a winner but its natural gas is in Pennsylvania. The president did green light about what I talked about last night the return of coal. All right. Now I personally don't like the coal stocks but Peabody has the cleanest coal and Alliance Resource Partners have has one of the most lucrative utility coal businesses. Utility coal is what's in play here. It can substitute for natural gas. Natural gas goes too high. The president talked about that. Coal's been losing market share for ages because it's so dirty. Made up over 30% of our energy a decade ago and it's down to 15%. But Trump doesn't mind. He likes it. He actually said good things about it. And you know what? We need more stuff to power all these data centers. And coal can work. Those stocks can work. President talks about interest rates should go lower. He wants to draw bone Jay Powell lowering short rates get nonstarter. Trump can't bull rates down. He doesn't control interest rates. They're set by the Fed and the bond market. If Trump really wants to send interest rates lower, he needs to shrink the budget deficit. No amount of hectoring will make any difference at all now. Today Trump attacked Brian Moynihan, the affable CEO of Bank of America, for allegedly discriminating against conservatives. I have no idea what to do with this one other than to say it's completely uninvestable. First, I've never heard of it, neither here nor there. Second, bank of America's good stock. He called for declining inflation but to do that he'll have to find a way to Cut food prices, insurance prices, auto prices, auto insurance prices, home prices, health care prices. Didn't hear anything about how he's going to do that all. Not an actual speech, even as there was plenty of action in it. Yesterday, however, we got Catalyst Glory. The President's data center press conference ignited the stock of Oracle, even as Oracle had already planned pledged to build many more data centers before this. Still, you have to assume for many people this is the first they've heard of that. We had armholes on Squawk on the street yesterday. It's a company designs the architecture for CPUs in the data center to go with Nvidia's turbocharged GPUs. But we also had Arnold Mad Money last week. The CEO, he said pretty much the same thing. So the stock went up big yesterday and then people realized wait a second, that's already known, and went right back. But there was one real winner yesterday and it's one that went down in video. If you want to build a first class data center, which is what Trump's talking about, you have to buy chips from Nvidia because when it comes to AI, they're really the only game in town. Still now Nvidia went up media yesterday, but then there was no follow through today because of an alpha called SK Hynix. It's another semiconductor company based in Korea. It reported a set of unimpressive numbers late last night. I think the weakest in Hynix had nothing whatsoever to do with video. My conclusion, lots of people got faked into selling Nvidia off this Hynix story. However, the big data center build out verifies the demand from various products. So it's still worth buying with was the case. At the end of the day, it's still worth buying. I think we have to expect that President Trump will say something every day that gets a ton of coverage, just like I just described. We need to monitor these statements. But look, we can't expect all of them to generate actionable investing ideas, even if they do produce bullish animal spirits that boost the market. Go by the S and P now, there will be one off coal, Nvidia, Oracle. But for the most part, the energy, the flurry, the changing the guard will simply lead to less regulation. And guess what? When you have less regulation, you don't buy any stocks, you buy the banks. That's what I told members of the CNBC investing club at my noon club meeting. That's right, you buy, you buy BlackRock because it's levered to the bull Market at Trump wants a stove and you buy. Goldman Sachs will make a fortune from all the mergers and acquisitions that are on the way. Especially when you no longer have to fear the wrath of Khan, Lina Khan. That is the FTC bottom line. Trump wants the banks to succeed and a higher stock market is the badge he craves. Even if he's saying bad things about bank of America. But just because there's a lot of bluster, there are only a few tradable ideas. So I want you to do this before you pull the trigger. Filter things and take advantage of the fact that the pin action for the banks is extraordinary. Mike in Illinois. Mike?
Mike
Hey Jim, it's Mike.
Jim Cramer
Mike, I thought it was you.
Mike
Great month, a great monthly meeting today. Very informative.
Jim Cramer
Thank you. Very.
Mike
Structure organized. The catalysts were great, Great, very informative. Anyhow, I've got a position in Costco wondering if I should buy, sell or hold additional.
Jim Cramer
Okay, as we said, you know, we talked today on the call and our view was that Costco could fall a little more but it's never going to get cheap. So the answer is yes, you can buy some here because it is down from a hunt from1942. I would wait to 900 though. That's when I pulled that trigger. Dennis in New Jersey. Dennis.
Mike
Good evening, Mr. Kramer. This is Dennis from New Jersey.
Jim Cramer
What part of Jersey?
Mike
Hackettstown, over toward the Pennsylvania border.
Jim Cramer
Oh, okay. Yeah. All right, go ahead.
Mike
Okay, my question for tonight is about IBM and wondering why they're not participating in the Trump election or.
Jim Cramer
Well, I got to tell you, I think it's just a matter of time. I think IBM is doing very well. I'm not as close to as I used to be, but I think IBM is doing well and it's got, it's got a legitimate place when it comes to artificial intelligence and compute. So I like it. Hey, why don't we go to Gabriel in California, please? Gabriel?
Gabriel
Yeah, hi Jim, I'm calling from Lincoln near Sacramento. I found you during the financial crisis and than thanks to you I've been able to build up solid IRA and investment account for our family. So thanks.
Jim Cramer
That's what I want. That's what I want. We talk. Well, I'm happy. Let's go.
Gabriel
My question, given the upcoming merger of Capital One and Discover Financial and given that financial that Discover says all time highs, should I wait for the merger or sell my discovery?
Jim Cramer
It's a really interesting question, ma'am. And I'll tell you what, Gabriel, this morning at 12 o'clock in my noon club meeting, I recommended the stock. I said that the mergers, because it's going to merge with Capital One, is going going to be excellent. I was talking to Jeff Marshall saying that we should add Capital One to the charitable trust. So I can't tell you to sell it. All right, listen, we're going to have to monitor what President Trump says every day, but we can't expect every day to produce actual ideas. Stop. Look, listen, don't pull the trigger. Nobody Tonight I'm getting a read on rates and more with SL Green. Really top brass press off the company's really nice report. I boy it. I love New York. Then what could a Trump White House really mean for oil stocks in the energy landscape? I'm drilling through the details and telling you where I stand. And later I'm circling back on a health insurance player that you called in on and you know how much we like to answer your questions. I suggest that you stay with Kramer.
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Jim Cramer
For the past few years we've seen some incredible gains in the office real estate investment trust, including ones we like. This group was left for dead during the pandemic. But over time, people gradually started going back to work. Business made a huge comeback. Take SL Green, really the Manhattan focused office REIT with a portfolio of newer, high quality buildings, especially what's known as the Park Avenue corridor, the area just north of Grand Central Station. If you ever been there, it has changed so much. It's really great. Possibly the hottest part of the city right now. Bottom at $19 March 2023 but then more than quadruple, topping out at $82 and change in November. While the stocks pulled back since then thanks to look, the interest rates went up. It's still holding up well in the mid-60s. Now last time the company reported a pretty solid quarter higher than expected funds from operation. The key measurement of profit, profitability by the way, for Reese. And same store sale, Same square occupancy 92.5%. Manhattan stocks pulled back a little today. I'm thinking buying opportunity. Let's check in with Mark Holidays, the chairman CEO of SO Green. Yet a better sense of the quarter. What comes next. Welcome back to bed Money.
Mark Holiday
Thank you, thank you. Great to be back.
Jim Cramer
Okay, I've got to tell you, I'm going to put this so people understand. Not only is real estate come back, it has come back with an alacrity that I think no one other than you and a couple of other people expected. This quarter again was a great quarter.
Mark Holiday
Yeah, it certainly was. And we've been beating this drum, I would say for almost 15 months now because we've seen the dynamic, increasing demand, diminishing, supply that really, you know, doesn't take a lot to figure out where that's headed. We did 3.6 million square feet of leasing last year. That was the third highest in our 27 years as a public company that.
Jim Cramer
This was like everybody is supposed to be at home and businesses were failing. All wrong. Right.
Mark Holiday
Well, everyone just delayed, delayed Delayed. And then it was like, you know, the floodgates opened up. We did 188 lease deals, most of them almost, almost exclusively straight renewals and expansions. Nobody's. Nobody shrinking.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so we, we did a little guessing game today. We were talking about how much one Vanderbilt is. Is worth because you sold an 11% stake in the building and no one got even $2 billion as close to what it was. How is this building worth so much?
Mark Holiday
Well, it's quite possibly. I don't want to, you know, I'm a little biased here. Quite possibly the best building, office building in New York or in the country.
Jim Cramer
And that can be a 4.7 billion.
Mark Holiday
It can, it can be higher, actually, because that noi from that building is about. Is going to be nearing $250 million of net operating income from one asset. Which just shows you what can be done in New York City when you, when you mix it all the right way.
Jim Cramer
Right now, many years ago, and I was at dinner where you were at, you talked about the idea that if a governor would possibly make some concessions, there would be actual conversions happening and they would be terrific. I was skeptical, but you were right. And it's happening right now. 750 Park Avenue, 753rd. That's a beautiful building. Thank you.
Mark Holiday
Thank you. I got. You know what? That's another example where private sector, public sector got together. Got it. Right. And now on the slate, 15 million square feet of conversions of kind of secondary and tertiary office into prime residential. It's a triple win.
Jim Cramer
It.
Mark Holiday
It winnows up the available office space, it puts critical housing on the table, and it livens up these CBDs, which are dead nights and weekends. Residential makes it 24 7.
Jim Cramer
Well, that makes you feel downtown. I don't want to get away from your special, but downtown's got a lot of things. Are you telling me that as the conversions occur in the street, conversions right here, it can just pop like that?
Mark Holiday
It's conversions with increasing demand. It's like a compounding effect.
Jim Cramer
Right.
Mark Holiday
If you take the top buildings, not the conversions, the trophy buildings. 46 million square feet in Manhattan in the third quarter. Eight and a half percent availability rate. Right this quarter, 6.7%. It happened just like that. That's how it'll be a latent effect downtown, but that's how it's going to happen.
Jim Cramer
Okay, so when we have the cars where you got to pay Midtown people are saying that the traffic's down a lot because of it. Affect you or not?
Mark Holiday
Well, I Mean, look, it plays right into our strength because all of our buildings are right around transit hubs. That's been our specialty. Grand Central, you know, Midtown centric. Everything is off a subway or primary commutation line. So, you know, the more people are taking subway, the better our buildings are.
Jim Cramer
Because that's core Midtown, Big Lisa, IBM.
Mark Holiday
Yeah, well, that's. So look, they, they've only been in the building like less than a year, and they just grew by 35%. Took 93,000ft. And credit to Arvind Krishna, IBM CEO, bringing his people back building space that makes them want to come back in a building that gave him the template for everything he needed.
Jim Cramer
Now, last to talk, what's a fortress area?
Mark Holiday
Fortress area. Those, you know, those areas around transit hubs that have 24, 7 lifestyle. People don't want to, you know, be in dead places. They want to be in places where, you know, they can go out at night, get, you know, great bite to eat. As a matter of fact, at One Madison, which I think is a fortress asset, we just opened up the Tte d'Or great steakhouse. I can't wait to host you there.
Jim Cramer
See, I think that people are, are buzzing about all these places, and they're your places. I am worried if interest rates, rates keep going higher that things could get negative. But that's up to you. You tell me.
Mark Holiday
Well, I got the memo today. Donald Trump said, President Trump said rates are coming down immediately, wants them down immediately. So, you know, that'll have to. Well, how that plays out, I can.
Jim Cramer
Tell you, is, is that we've been, we, we couldn't. We went midtown. We saw all your names because it's on the buildings. We said, these are amazing buildings. This is New York City. The way that, that the east part I used to live in and 44th and 2nd I now covet where I used to live. It is amazing over there. I know a lot of it is credit to you, so thank you very much. And you really had a big impact on the.
Mark Holiday
Thank you.
Jim Cramer
Big impact. Thanks. That matters. That's Mark Holiday. He's the chairman and CEO of SL Green. Come to New York, go to the east side. There's been nothing there for years other than a train station. Now it's the best place to go and to eat. Too many. Back up to the break.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, Donald Trump just made energy a top priority. We will drill, baby.
Jim Cramer
Drill.
Mad Money Announcer
Stocks in the oil patch have ignited, but does the move have staying power? Cramer drills down next.
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Jim Cramer
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Jim Cramer
Let'S talk some oil because that's everybody's doing Only a few days in the second Trump administration. Like everybody else, I got to figure out what all these executive orders flying around mean for particular industries. For example, the oil service space seems like an obvious winner, right? I mean, think SLB or Halberd. And as the president signed an executive order on Monday, it basically moves personal barriers to drilling. Of course, that doesn't mean the producers will just drill baby, drill though. As our go to energy expert Rusty Brazil of RBN Energy explained on the show last night, Trump may want production. I don't blame him once price is lower, but it's up to the oil and gas companies to actually do the producing. And they know that more supply translates into lower prices. Exactly. Both of the major oil service places, SOB and Halbert, have now reported their fourth quarter results, so be reported last week. Halliburton turned in numbers just yesterday morning. So we've got a better sense of what's happening in this industry because there might be some real value here. First, let's talk about SOB now. It's formerly known as Schlumberger, which is the larger and more international of the two. The stock took off last Friday in response to a strong quarter, so BE posted modest top and bottom line beats. Their North American business delivered the most upside comfortably ahead of their expectations. Their larger international business was in line, thanks to some softness in Latin America. But the real story of Messibee, as is typically the case, was management's commentary about the future, which I'm going to have to classify as cautious but not terrible. One analyst from JP Morgan called it better than feared. And that sounds about right, at least to me. CEO, CEO, CEO Olivier La Pooch he noted that in the back half of 2024, his customers, being the oil and gas producers, quote, adopted a more cautious approach, primarily driven by concerns of an oversupplied oil market, end quote. But then he added, quote, although these concerns persist, we anticipate the oil supply imbalance will gradually abate, end quote. Citing Global economic growth and a heightened focus of energy security coupled with rising energy demand from AI and data centers. Yes, for this year specifically, Laputch said, quote, we expect global upstream investment to be steady in 2025 compared to 2024. And quote, for the smaller North American side of the business, he sounded less optimistic, explaining that oil and gas activity is expected to decline due to lower publicly announced capex in US land, higher drilling efficiency and a slow recovery in gas until LNG capacity expansions are resolved. Now the stock still got a nice pop in these numbers in that commentary gained 6% last Friday because the results were better than feared. Keep in mind this is a stock that fell 26% in 2024. But you know, as I see it, the quarter was neutral at best, especially for the North American side of the business. So people already given back most of last Friday's gains this week and that seems about right after a quarter that was not terrible but also wasn't particularly encouraging. So what about Hallberg which reported yesterday morning. All right, well how stock is simply beaten down having fallen almost 25% last year. It didn't get an SLB style bounce yesterday. In fact it was another 3.6% and then today got here for another 1.8%. Why? Well, Halbert and mixed headline numbers. Revenue was down 2% year over year, slightly lower than expected. While the earnings only beat estimates by a penny. Halliburton is much more levered to North America than S.O.B. and right now that's hurting them as North American revenue fell 7% even as the international business was up 3%. But North America is where the action is for these guys. Looking forward, Halberton says it expects flat international revenues in 2025 with Halberd and CEO Jeff Miller saying, quote, growth in most international markets offset by activity reduction in Mexico, end quote. Other than Mexico, the rest of the world is actually looking good for them. For North America. Halberd naturally sounded pretty optimistic for the long term, but not necessarily for this year. For 2025, Halberd Express North America to be down low to mid single digits from last year. That's not good. Miller added that they're taking a real hit on pricing in America. That's even worse. Longer term though is much more segment. Miller noted that after conceding and giving those price breaks I just mentioned Halpern's now sold out with all of its fleets working under committed or contracted programs. Good. He also mentioned some new technologies including Zeus, the company's new electric fracturing pumping unit. That's a fracking tool and this is the part that I like best. Miller explained Quote I believe the next catalyzing inflection from North America services will be up, not down. I believe the most pressing energy problem North America today is the power shortage, driven by the electrification and power demand for AI and this cannot be solved without significant amounts of natural gas. And I totally agree with him. He goes on to say this is on top of the expected increases in LNG exports. These are all very good things for Halliburton in 2025. Same story as SLB. I think it's compelling, even if it will take time to play out. So then let's ask ourselves, are the oil service plays a good bet under the new Trump administration? My short answer is not quite yet. Could be soon. Looking at just slob and how that's what we used to call it, slob. On the trading desk, I'm underwhelmed by the results from the fourth quarter and their outlooks for 2025. I'm also tempered by Rusty Brazil's comments last night because getting more production here in the US Might not be as simple as drill baby drilled. A declaration of White House won't cut it. You know what? I'm going to go a step further as President Trump's main goal in energy seems to be getting prices down, which would be great for consumers. But as I said at the top of the show, it would be terrible for the oil and gas industry longer term, say over the next four years. I certainly think the oil service cohort could make a comeback. The rollback of regulations will make it easier to drill. Once the oil and gas companies decide they want to drill, it could make a huge difference. Plus why I think the oil service plays could remain challenged for a while, maybe the entire year. These stocks right now are incredibly cheap. SLB 12 times this year's earnings 2.7% yield Halliburton 10 times with a 2.4% yield that said, it's hard to predict when these stocks are going to bottom given how cheap they are. Though I could count on starting a spot position now. As long as you prepare to go slowly, buy more on the way down and accept that these are value plays. Deep value, bottom line. The whole oil and gas industry loves the drill baby drill White House, but doesn't automatically take up the oil service stocks or the producers for that matter. After listening to what SLB and Halberton have to have to say over the past week, considering the macro environment and the new geopolitical factors I think their stocks can work over time, just perhaps not necessarily right now. Still, given how cheap they are, I can't blame anyone for wanting to picket them down here. Just please, I'm begging you, buy them gradually because my bet is we'll get more near term weakness as American oil companies hold back to keep prices high and profits robust. Let's go to dawn in California. Dawn.
Gabriel
Booyah.
Jim Cramer
Jim.
Gabriel
I'm a free time investment club member.
Jim Cramer
Yes. I hope you like the talk today.
Gabriel
Thank you. Great. I loved our morning meeting. Thank you for inspiring me to take control of my finances and learn more about investing.
Jim Cramer
That's it. We are trying to keep, we're trying to teach. We have a menu of stocks. You can choose among them. We're trying to teach you how to identify value, teach you how to do it right. And I thank dawn for seeing exactly what we're doing. And let's go to work.
Gabriel
Jim, if I can, I would just like to send a huge thank you to all the firefighters working tirelessly in California to protect our communities from the fires.
Jim Cramer
I totally agree. And what a great bunch of people. We've got someone who's a relative in there and all I can tell you is, is that they are fighting a war. There's a war.
Gabriel
Yes, sir. Jim, three separate times I wanted to pull the trigger on this leading integrated power company. Is it too late? The company is VST Vistra.
Jim Cramer
You know what, Dawn, I have to tell you, it has gone up so, so much. Maybe if it comes down you can buy a little. But it is just on fire. I can't count. That's buying in here. I am afraid I'll hurt you. But I do appreciate your comments and I also think echo your what you're saying about the firefighters. Let's go to Craig in Ohio. Craig.
Mike
Hey, Jim. A big booyah from Southeast Ohio.
Jim Cramer
Oh yeah.
Mike
My stock is AES Corporation and my old method, methodology for utility companies. I've, I've always picked up utility companies like AEP or Southern sure and their yield is around 5%. So this one, as you probably know, yields over 6%. But it can't seem to get out of its way.
Jim Cramer
No, I rolled it all the way.
Mike
Up to the 20s and now I'm actually below my cost, which I should have stuck with it.
Jim Cramer
Here's what I want to do. I got to get them on because I've got to tell you, when you see a utility yielding 6% just renewables, there's something very wrong with it. And I'm going to Say, don't touch it. Let's find out more about AES. It is out of whack with the rest of the utilities. All right. After hearing what Halliburton and SLB had to say over the past week, you know, I think their stocks are going to work over time. I wanted to do some value stocks. Not just the vistas, not just the constellations. Some things that represent real value and how and expect do that. Now we've got much more mad money ahead. Creating my look at another interesting stock that you asked about for Alignment Health Care. Does it deserve a spot in your portfolio? Then what should you make of the latest headlines about tech billionaires? I'm breaking down the action intersection of Wall street and Washington, of course. All your calls by tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer. Every time you call in and ask about a stock that I either don't know or haven't looked at in a while, I put it to the side and promise to do some homework. We're coming back to you with a more informed opinion. You deserve that. Versus Last week, Bruce in California asked about a company called Alignment Healthcare. Now that wasn't on my radar screen at all, which is why I said I get back to so before earnings goes into a fever pitch, let's get this one. What exactly is Alignment Health Care? This is a health insurance company that makes its money in the Medicare Advantage space, primarily operating in California, but also North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Texas. Young company Under Medicare, senior citizens have two primary choices for health insurance once they reach the age of 65. Not that I would they can either enroll in a traditional Medicare fee for service administered by the government, or they can be a Medicare Advantage plan run by a managed care company. Look, I'm not a health insurance expert, but I know that Medicare Advantage is a great business. People are living longer than previous generations and our lifespans are only growing. According to the Census Bureau, roughly 10,000 adults become eligible for Medicare every day. In 2022, we have 57.8 million senior citizens. By 2023, we're going to have 71.2. That's incredible. Sears aren't going anywhere. They're going like weeds. We sit the government subsidized health care. From Alignment Health Care perspective, this is an $826 billion market opportunity. It's one of the biggest I've ever heard. That should grow by 7% annually over the next decade. That's a dire projection, but if you're worried about the budget deficit. But but, you know, not if you're running a Medicare Advantage plan. You know, I've been covering this about the government running this deficit and I'm very worried about Medicare. Now. Alignment Health Care is a company with an agenda. They think our legacy health care system is a disaster. It's broken because we pay health care providers based on the volume of services they provide rather than the quality of care. With their Medicare Advantage plans, they can do things a little differently. There's a reason so many senior citizens have been switching from traditional fee for service Medicare to privately run Medicare Advantage plans. More than half of eligible seniors have already embraced these things. So not the most exciting business in the world. There's, there's no mention of artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, driverless cars, quantum computing, or even space. But if you just look at how the stock is traded, it's up more than 20% from its lows last April. You think Alignment must be some kind of a meme stock. This thing's been rallying like crazy and it's kept running even at a time when the rest of health care has gone out of style. The Wall street fashion show. You don't see a lot of those stocks moving. What in the world's driving this one? Okay. To give some of the analysts credit, there was a fair amount of interest in Alignment Health Care before its stock began its meteoric rise. There was particular exuberance around Alignment's technology platforms, or aba, that helps companies identify and proactively manage care for its sickest patients. By using advanced analytics, they can deliver personalized care and prevent costly hospital visits. That gives it a leg up on the competition. Now, Alignment Health Care began its impressive rally at the beginning of last May when the company reported tremendous quarter and issued strong guidance. The analysts were impressed by Alignment ability to scale its business, officially noting that its sales to general administrative expenses are approaching levels comparable to much larger competitors like Humana. As noted by analysts at Baird, Humana is 45 times larger than Alignment in terms of revenue. So it's remarkable Alignment to achieve similar cost efficiencies. Now, October was the pivotal time for the space, as that's when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the new their star ratings. Which led to analysts filtering these Medicare Advantage plans by Stars Online to see if they could get some early intel before the formal announcement. But when those results were finally released, it turned out that Alignment Health Care did pretty well. The primary Medicare Advantage plan maintained its 4 star rating and their second biggest plan increased from 3 to 4.5 stars. That's very hard to do. Why do these ratings matter? Because Medicare Advantage plans this they maintained the ratings last year. They grew enrollment by 19% versus only 3% enrollment growth for the plants where the ratings decline. It's real bad if your stars go down. This momentum continued later that month when Alignment reported terrific third quarter better than expected for both revenues and membership growth. That gave the analysts confidence that this company could convert its new members into durable earnings growth this year. Now, earlier this month, Alignment reported impressive annual enrollment period numbers beating analysts expectations, solidifying its position for the new year. The company's tech enabled Medicare Advantage plan continues to outperform competitors struggling with lower star ratings and regulatory changes. They've also doubled their membership outside California, now serving roughly 28,000 members beyond the state. It's a little company which now makes up 14% of its total base. This kind of execution has earned Alignment a lot of praise from analysts who believe it's well positioned to continue to take market share. Company also benefit from some of the struggles of the larger names in the space which I've talked about before. Besides, it's not been a great time for United Health or Humana. So that's how we got to where we are today. What about the future? How do you value this thing? While its prospects are looking bright, you should know that Alignment still is improper on adjusted earnings per share base. I don't like that and I expect to be probably in the near future. But we like to recommend profitable companies. It's basically a small early stage managed care play. On the one hand, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyman and keep beating the estimates. But after the incredible run the stock it's basically priced for perfection. For example, the analysts that cover the name like the value of the company based on its enterprise multiple its enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization or EBITDA. And using their consensus estimates for 2026 alignment health care trades at nearly three times the level that you manage does I don't like that tall order. And something to keep in mind when investing, even when you really like to prospects of businesses growing like wait plus let's not forget, if you want to bet on a company that only does Medicare Advantage plans, you're totally hostage to Washington. If somebody in the Trump administration gets it in their head to shrink the budget deficit by controlling Medicare spending, this entire group is toast. I know it's very hard for our elected leaders to cut Medicare. I mean like really hard. Not popular. But someone like Elon Musk doesn't have to care about the electorate if he's empowered to. And if so much as mentions Medicare cost savings, alignment is going to roll. Bottom line, right now, alignment Health care seems like a promising company. They're clearly very good at what they do. But I think it could be a tough stock to own given how much it's already run. In other words, we're late to alignment. Money is back after the break.
Mad Money Announcer
Coming up, lightning doesn't just strike twice in Creamerica.
Mike
We are Jimmy, Chip, thanks for taking my call.
Mad Money Announcer
It strikes every day. Kramer is back in a flash with your questions.
Mark Holiday
Next.
Jim Cramer
It is time, Celtics. We'll get rid of the tour stock with time. I step for you. Play this out, and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? Skate. Dive over the lightning round. Curtains, everybody. I want to start with Carl in New Jersey. Carl.
Mike
Hey, Jim. Is Soundhead AI a buy or sell?
Jim Cramer
Okay. This is a meme stock, and they kind of get it going. I'm never going to get in the way of meme stock because you never know how high they can go. Let's go to Paul in Ohio. Paul. There you go.
Mike
Another big buckeye. Booyah to you, Jim Cramer.
Jim Cramer
I like that. Good, good. Booyah. What's going on?
Mike
Hey, I'm a club member and I just wanted to thank you and your staff for everything you guys do.
Jim Cramer
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mike
Oh, you're. You're welcome. Hey, I'm calling about lam research.
Jim Cramer
That stock is so cheap. Oh, I want to buy it. I want to buy. We have so much semi in the travel trust, but that stock is the cheapest I've seen in a long time. I really like lrcx. Let's go to William, New Jersey. William.
Mike
Hey, Jim, longtime viewer. I have a question about a stock that's been on a nice run of late.
Jim Cramer
It has a nice dividend.
Mike
I'm talking about epd, what you think.
Jim Cramer
Oh, my God. It's my absolute favorite of the group. I think you just got to just stand there and buy it. It's cheap, it's got a good yield, and its business is fabulous. Thank you, Rusty Brazil, for pointing that one out to me a long time ago. I need to go to Joseph in North Carolina. Joseph.
Mike
Hey, booyah, Jim. How are you doing?
Jim Cramer
I am doing well. How about you?
Mike
Wonderful, Wonderful. Congratulations on your eagles. I'm rooting for them all the way.
Jim Cramer
Well, we got. We got to hope. We got to hope. We got to stop Jade. If we stop shading, we win. It's Just that simple. What's going on?
Mike
Yes, sir. Well, I'm a second time caller, long time listener. I talked to you about a year and a half ago ago when I told you that I had sold my Nvidia and made about $300,000 on it.
Jim Cramer
Yes.
Mike
Yeah, I love Nvidia. I turn around and I invested that money in a company called CrowdStrike, which I know you're familiar with.
Jim Cramer
Yo. And that one's going hard. We're going to anniversary the July outage, don't forget. And then it's going to fly.
Mike
Okay, Yeah, I know that's, that's the thing. And I, I implored one of your principles. You know, I had 2500 shares of CrowdStrike and I waited for earnings out in May and sold 1500 shares at 382. And of course the debacle happened in.
Jim Cramer
July and I wanted double down, double down on that one. So what's one that we can work on right now?
Mike
Well, I've started reacquiring Nvidia and that's my question for you. So I love Nvidia. Back to 2900 shares. But while I was researching Nvidia, a couple of weeks ago, a company came across to me that was very interesting. I noted that Nvidia had taken an investment in it. It's got a balance sheet of $3 billion, low debt to equity of less than 5%, less than $10 billion market cap short shares are less than 3%. And it's on Nvidia's preferred partner list. Innovative AI company, multifaceted. And it's a company called Nebius Tickler symbol N. Bis.
Jim Cramer
What do you Nebius? I don't know Nebius. I've never heard of it. That's terrible. I should have heard of it. Well, you know what? I'd rather just own the fact that I have that. I don't know it. That's what I'm gonna do. The. I have to do the homework. Let's go to Rich in New York. Rich.
Mike
Hey, Jim. Hats off to you and your staff.
Jim Cramer
They're the best, aren't they? They're amazing. What's going on?
Mike
Hey, and gold bills.
Jim Cramer
Oh, yes. Jesus. Absolutely. We just have to stop. Jaden. Get tired of saying that. I have Jayden Daniels. I have a guy here who's going to come to the game with me. He's threatening to wear burgundy and I told him I'm going to pour a bottle of burgundy over his head. He does that. What's going on?
Mike
Well, Jim. Hey, this stock's been a loser since we bought it back in June at 139. It's now around 1 2, 21. Most analysts are bullish on it. Piper Sandler has A price target of 193. The average price targets 73. Profit margin of 47.6% and a dividend. What's your thoughts on C H R D now?
Jim Cramer
Not an oil guy here. I mean, you know that in the club we know we're selling our Kotaro now. Let's hit 30. We think go still higher, but we don't want to add a chip. Mark said. I talked to the club and he said we're not adding any more oils. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round.
Mad Money Announcer
The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up is the Apprentice oligarch edition already at risk of being canceled. Kramer talks the billionaire battle heating up on Pennsylvania Avenue next.
Jim Cramer
Booyah, Jim.
Mike
Your integrity makes you the booyah saint of Wall Street.
Jim Cramer
Booyah, Jimmy chill.
Gabriel
Booyah, Jimmy chill.
Jim Cramer
Booyah, Jim. Quadruple. That's a lot of booyah. We're not even a week into Trump's second term and we're already seeing discord among the billionaires. These oligarchs don't play for dinner. The White House needs to keep them in the game. Already some of the billionaires are starting to leave. There has to be some discipline among the players that things will resolve before they can accomplish anything positive for the stock market. I'm talking about this high stakes game for the nation. Let's call it the Titan Apprentice that President Trump's in charge of. But there's no prize available that's big enough to keep these participants playing. As a former judgment celebrity Apprentice, I know the drill. Like any successful reality show, from the Apprentice to the Traders to Survivor, you need some real competition. You need the back player and you need prizes. Everyone has to stay motivated. That means you need to see Elon Musk go off on Sam Altman from OpenAI. You have to wonder whether Satya Nadella is being blown out by Larry Ellison. Great stuff there. You need to see some of the photo op CEOs pop in and pop out. Trump needs them. Maybe it'll help when Davos is over, get some more players playing. But what you can have is people leaving the game entirely. When Vivek Ramaswamy, the week or half of Doge, departed for Ohio without saying a word, that wasn't cricket, we heard today that he clashed with Musk. He could have stuck around a little more. Come on. But why bother? When you're a billionaire, you don't need to put up with the hassle. He reminded me of one of my times as a celebrity apprentice judge. But one of the contestants, Gene Simmons. Yeah, the kiss guy. He blew up the contest for God knows what reason. But he didn't even get fired. He just left. He didn't need to stay because he was rich. The others needed the prize to restart their careers, but somehow kiss everyone out of style. Right now Trump's having the same problem corralling and motivating the billionaires. They need some reason to roll up their sleeves beyond just access. Take those. We know Elon Musk's team can come in and figure out why the drug middlemen keep making more money than the drug companies. Given the pharma companies actually do. The innovation while a middleman just get a bigger and bigger cut. You need an outsider come in and shine a light on this darn thing. Take defense spending. Right now. The military spends a fortune on hardware, but that spending is incredibly wasteful because we've got this oligarchy of five large defense contractors that control the entire industry. That's why we need someone like Palantir again, a solid gang of billionaires to run the procurement system. Not just update the software, suggest management skill changes like their Accenture McKinsey or something. But only the richest man on earth can make that happen. What if Musk gets bored? I mean sure, Starlink needs government help to take big telco contracts. Tesla needs Trump to greenlight the federal interstate highway system as his designated hands free self driving zone. Couldn't. Maybe for trucks, nice prize there, but maybe it's not enough. At the end of the day, it's hard to get the richest man in the world to do something he doesn't particularly want to do. We need more big prizes or more commitments that can't be broken. And we need them now or none of these initiatives will amount to anything. So Mr. Trump, keep them in the game. The billionaires can get something done. Business as usual means more money ill spent while entrenched interest dig ever deeper. There are a lot of things going on that you may or may not like. But the one show that can't be canceled, Cleaning up our country's heinous balance sheet. We got a unique chance to pull it off here because the billionaires generally don't care about upsetting the big defense contractors. The the drug middleman even perhaps maybe Social Security or Medicare. The dreaded entitlements that are eating us alive. But you got to keep these guys motivated. So I hope the president's pulling out all the stops here to keep the game riveting for the billionaires. I'd like to say, as always, more market somewhere at Pirate Financial just for your man Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.
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Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (1/23/25)
Release Date: January 24, 2025
Jim Cramer opens the episode by highlighting significant movements in the stock market, attributing gains to Wall Street's dynamic energy and the influence of presidential communications. He notes the Dow’s impressive 400-point rise, a 4.8% increase, the S&P’s 0.53% advance, and the Nasdaq’s 0.22% gain. Cramer emphasizes the necessity of understanding the "presidential lightning round" and its implications on investing strategies.
Notable Quotes:
Cramer delves into the anticipated effects of President Trump’s second administration on various industries, focusing particularly on energy and financial sectors. He draws parallels to Reagan’s administration, suggesting that Trump's rapid-fire policy announcements create numerous trading catalysts. Cramer warns investors to discern actionable investment ideas from mere market noise generated by political rhetoric.
Key Points:
Notable Quotes:
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to SL Green, a Manhattan-focused office real estate investment trust (REIT). Cramer discusses SL Green’s robust performance despite rising interest rates, highlighting its strategic location around transit hubs and high-quality buildings in prime Manhattan areas like Park Avenue.
Interview Highlights: Jim Cramer interviews Mark Holiday, CEO of SL Green, who elaborates on the company’s impressive leasing activities and conversion projects turning office spaces into residential units. This strategy not only reduces available office space but also injects critical housing and livens up Central Business Districts (CBDs).
Notable Quotes:
Cramer provides an in-depth analysis of the oil and energy sector under the new administration. He examines the performance of major oil service companies like Schlumberger (SLOB) and Halliburton, discussing their fourth-quarter results and future outlooks.
Key Points:
Notable Quotes:
Cramer engages with listeners through a series of calls, offering personalized stock advice:
Mike from Illinois ([09:11]): Asks about Costco shares.
"You can buy some here because it is down from a high."
Dennis from New Jersey ([09:53]): Inquires about IBM’s participation in Trump’s policies.
"I think IBM is doing very well and it's got a legitimate place when it comes to artificial intelligence and compute. So I like it."
Gabriel from California ([10:41]): Queries the Capital One and Discover Financial merger.
"I can't tell you to sell it... we're going to have to monitor what President Trump says every day."
Dawn from California ([28:46]): Discusses VST Vistra’s stock appreciation.
"Maybe if it comes down you can buy a little. But it is just on fire."
Craig from Ohio ([30:15]): Concerned about AES Corporation’s declining stock price.
"When you see a utility yielding 6%, there's something very wrong with it. Don't touch it."
Notable Quotes:
During the interview with Mark Holiday, Cramer explores SL Green's ambitious project of converting office spaces into residential units, aiming to address housing shortages and rejuvenate downtown areas. Holiday emphasizes the synergistic benefits of these conversions, including reduced office space availability, increased housing, and vibrant CBDs.
Notable Quotes:
The "Lightning Round" segment features rapid-fire stock recommendations to callers:
Soundhead AI ([38:59]):
"This is a meme stock, and they kind of get it going. I’m never going to get in the way of meme stocks."
Lam Research ([39:33]):
"That stock is so cheap. I want to buy it."
EPD ([39:51]):
"It is just on fire. I can’t count. That's buying in here."
LAM Research ([40:25]):
"Don't touch it. Always pick utility companies with stable yields."
Alignment Health Care ([32:50]): Inquired by Bruce from California, Cramer provides a comprehensive analysis, praising the company’s growth in the Medicare Advantage space but cautioning about its high valuation and dependency on regulatory stability.
Notable Quotes:
Cramer concludes the episode by reflecting on the complexities of the current market environment, emphasizing the importance of strategic investing amidst political and economic shifts. He urges listeners to remain vigilant, conduct thorough research, and adopt a gradual approach to investing, especially in volatile sectors like oil and energy.
Notable Quotes:
Overall Insights:
Political Influence on Markets: Cramer underscores the significant impact of presidential policies, particularly under Trump, on various sectors, urging investors to align their strategies accordingly.
Energy Sector Caution: Despite potential regulatory rollbacks, the oil and gas industry faces challenges that may prolong the undervaluation of service stocks like SLB and Halliburton.
Real Estate Resilience: SL Green exemplifies how strategic positioning and adaptive projects can yield substantial returns even in fluctuating interest rate environments.
Smart Investing Approach: Through listener interactions, Cramer advocates for a measured, research-driven investment approach, avoiding impulsive decisions based on transient market movements or political rhetoric.
Disclaimer:
All opinions expressed in this summary are based on the transcript provided and do not reflect the views of CNBC, NBCUniversal, or their affiliates. This summary is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice.