Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 2/26/26

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – February 26, 2026

Episode Overview

On this episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer unpacks a turbulent day on Wall Street dominated by abrupt sector rotation – a massive, programmed sell-off of tech hardware stocks (notably Nvidia, AMD, and semiconductors) in favor of long-struggling enterprise software names. Cramer uses the day's perplexing action to teach listeners about the power of ‘program trading’ and highlights why fundamentals sometimes get sidelined by machine-driven strategies.

The episode features Cramer’s takes on GE Aerospace, Palantir, Hinge Health, and a meaty segment breaking down recent results and strategy at McDonald’s as a case study in consumer-driven value. Notably, CEO interviews with Sassan Goodarzi (Intuit) and Bob Pagano (Watts Water Technologies) provide deep dives into how legacy and growth companies are navigating AI disruption, consumer changes, and industrial trends. The episode closes with Cramer reflecting on the alleged "SaaS apocalypse" and the future of software with Salesforce’s Mark Benioff.

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Key Discussion & Insights

1. Market Madness: Program Trading vs. Fundamentals

[01:41–09:21]

• Cramer opens with a breakdown of the day’s market action: massive selling of hardware tech stocks regardless of their positive fundamentals (Nvidia, AMD, etc.), and simultaneous, seemingly indiscriminate buying of enterprise software.
• Cramer emphatically argues that what looked nonsensical was the result of “program trades” – algorithmic strategies done by big hedge funds, not considered stock-by-stock:
  • Quote: “From the outside, today's action was just crazy... Of course not. But it's what's known as a program. And on any given day, the program can rule over the actual market.” (02:29)
• He recounts his own early days constructing “stock baskets” pre-ETF to illustrate the logic of these moves.
• Emphasizes how strong Nvidia earnings and guidance (with “terrific case for the next wave of AI”) didn't matter: the sector was chosen as “cannon fodder” by sell programs.
  • Quote: “Basically, Nvidia gave you everything you could ever want... But it was all for naught. Why? Because today Nvidia stock became cannon fodder for the unannounced sell program.” (05:19)
• Likewise, software stocks with weak fundamentals (Workday, Salesforce, Datadog) were suddenly bid up, not because of actual performance but owing to basket trading.
• Cramer’s lesson: investors should avoid falling for the narrative post-rationalization of these swings and use them to buy great companies at discounts when prices disconnect from fundamentals.
  • Quote: “We don't buy sectors, we buy companies. And... I'd use the program to buy the stocks you’d like at discounted prices to where they should be.” (08:45)
• Bottom line: “The stocks were treated as playthings of that account, not companies. They were puppets on hedge fund strings... I prefer when stocks represent the fundamentals of the underlying companies but on days like today don’t be fooled. The program is all that matters.” (09:12)

2. Lightning Round: Cramer’s Stock Takes

[09:21–12:49 & 39:37–42:41]

Call-in Highlights:

• GE Aerospace: “Larry Culp working for you... just a long term buy. Any dip that is sizable, I like as a buying opportunity.” (09:35)
• Palantir (PLTR): “Very long-term hold... great business model, smart people, clients love them. Hold Palantir.” (10:40)
• Hinge Health: “Just going to quietly go higher... has a model for patient education, buy and put away.” (11:36)
• Other Lightning Round Picks:
  • QXO (Brad Jacobs company): Buy, Jacobs will pull it off.
  • Reddit (RDDT): Buy, undervalued.
  • Archer Aviation/Joby: Avoid – “year of magical investing” is over.
  • Ford: Bullish, “Ford is coming back, starting to chug along, going higher.”
  • Universal Display (OLED): Not yet time to recommend.
  • Intercontinental Exchange (ICE/MSCI): Prefers MSCI, strong business leader.

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3. Interview: Sassan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit

[14:48–22:53]

Intuit’s Position Amidst AI Disruption

• Strong quarter: “Total revenue up 17% year over year, margins better than expected, big bottom line beat. Our business group grew 18%, mid-market grew 40%... TurboTax grew 12%... Credit Karma grew 23%.” (16:00)
• Intuit’s stickiness comes from operating in a “regulated, accuracy-and-compliance-heavy environment”:
  • “You cannot replicate accuracy and compliance in a regulated environment through LLMs... customers demand a human more than software, which is really where we come in.” (18:05)
• Human expertise fused with proprietary AI differentiates Intuit from AI-only competitors.
• Anthropic and OpenAI partnerships: Leverage best-in-class LLMs but retain control of customer experience; Intuit does not share economics with partners.
  • “We own the customer experience through APIs... do not share in any of the economics.” (20:28)
• Launching brick-and-mortar flagship in NYC and scaling 600+ local service centers to deepen the link between human experts and tech.
• Tax season outlook: “IRS returns are down 5%, TurboTax up 12%. Our assisted offering is on fire, very good performance.” (21:57)

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4. McDonald’s: Value, Resurgence, and Simplicity

[24:42–31:24]

• Cramer praises McDonald’s for rebounding via relentless focus on value meals and pricing discipline after misfires with overpricing.
  • $5 meal deal, reintroduction of McValue and Extra Value menus all proved successful.
• Last quarter: “Earnings beat, 10% earnings growth, 10% revenue growth, global same store sales jumped 5.7%, US up 6.8%.” (25:00)
• Strong marketing (Minecraft, Grinch socks), international innovation, and menu additions (McWings, Big Arch Burger, snack wraps) drive engagement.
  • “McDonald's became the largest seller of socks in the world for nearly a week.” (27:41)
• Capex plans and international expansion (aiming for 50,000 locations by 2027).
• Quote: “McDonald's is not going to get beat on value and affordability.” (26:45, attributing CEO Chris Kempczinski)
• Personal touch: Cramer shares his soft spot for the chain, linking it to family memories.
• Stock analysis: Not cheap but “the perfect type of stock for the market where investors want real companies that make things and do stuff that can't be hurt by AI... I’m still loving it.” (31:11)

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5. Interview: Bob Pagano, CEO of Watts Water Technologies

[33:42–39:16]

• 151-year-old company, 60% repair/replacement business = stability; 40% new construction, recently buoyed by data center demand.
• Data center hardware (especially cooling valves) is a growing segment, aligning with industry shift to liquid cooling.
• Acquisition strategy: Focus on small, accretive deals rather than big, risky bets.
  • “22 acquisitions in 12 years... always looking for strategic acquisitions where one plus one has to equal three at least.” (36:04)
• Portfolio discipline: Exited $175M in undifferentiated business to focus on proprietary, value-add products.
• Pricing power: Proactively raises prices to offset raw material costs, especially copper and steel volatility.
• International exposure: Down in Europe due to war, but exposure rising in Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa.
• Data center demand: Contractors see three years of strong opportunity ahead.
  • “Our contractors are busy... three years in front of them right now, that's how busy they are.” (38:39)

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6. Salesforce, Software & AI: The "SaaS Apocalypse" Debate

[43:02–47:51]

• Recap of CEO Marc Benioff’s impassioned defense against fears that AI will render Salesforce and enterprise SaaS obsolete.
  • “Every time the company managed bounce back. ... We're in another SaaS apocalypse. Well, it's a series of SaaS apocalypses.” (44:10, quoting Benioff)
• Skeptics worry software like Claude will replace legacy SaaS by cutting per-seat licensing revenues.
• Salesforce strategy: Invests heavily in agent-based AI (Agentix/Agent Force), already generating $800M annual recurring revenue, 29,000 deals since September 2024; AI handles routine tasks, humans focus on exceptions.
• Massive $50B buyback announced as a show of confidence in resilience against “the doom sayers.”
• Cramer’s conclusion: He’s previously doubted, but Salesforce’s track record at surviving crises makes him bet on them again. “It's always been a mistake to count them out, and I’m betting this time it will be no different.” (47:32)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On market program trading: “They were puppets on hedge fund strings and they got jerked around all over the place.” (09:12)
• On Nvidia’s flawless quarter: “Nvidia gave you everything you could ever want, including terrific guidance for the current quarter... But it was all for naught.” (05:19)
• On introspective investing: “We don't buy sectors, we buy companies.” (08:45)
• On McDonald’s:
  • “McDonald's is not going to get beat on value and affordability.” (26:45)
  • “Now that Mickey D’s is going back to its roots as the best source of value around, the customers are coming back and so is the same store sales growth.” (31:11)
• On Intuit’s AI and human advantage: “You cannot replicate accuracy and compliance in a regulated environment through LLMs... customers demand a human more than software.” (18:05)
• On Salesforce & SaaS:
  • Benioff: “Here we are, Jim, we're in another SaaS apocalypse. Well, it's a series of SaaS apocalypses.” (44:10)
  • Cramer: “I've seen this company down before and it's always been a mistake to count them out.” (47:32)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:41–09:12 – Market program trading & sector rotations explained
• 09:21–12:49 – Lightning round: GE Aerospace, Palantir, Hinge Health
• 14:48–22:53 – Intuit CEO Sassan Goodarzi interview: AI, tax season, strategy
• 24:42–31:24 – McDonald’s: Recovery, value meals, market impact
• 33:42–39:16 – Watts Water Tech CEO Bob Pagano interview: Data centers, strategy
• 39:37–42:41 – Second Lightning Round: Reddit, Ford, ICE/MSCI, etc.
• 43:02–47:51 – Salesforce, SaaS, and the impact of AI

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Tone & Language

Cramer’s delivery is high-energy, passionate, and sometimes tongue-in-cheek (“Other people made friends. I’m just trying to make you a little bit of money.”). His goal is to de-mystify the day’s chaos and turn Wall Street’s gamesmanship into actionable lessons. He leavens stock advice with storytelling, market history, and personal anecdotes—always aiming to educate and entertain.

Transcript

[Sassan Gudarzi]

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[Jim Cramer]

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[Jim Cramer]

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people made friends. I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain, but to do some teaching. So call me at 1-800-7-3 CNBC tweet Mitchum Kramer Today was an ambush, pure and simple. The sellers, they were waiting. They didn't care what Nvidia said last night. They probably didn't even listen. They decided from the get go that in video or any of the hardware tech stocks that have been up lately have now gotten too expensive. Instead, they want to swap into the left for dead software equities that they think represent good value. And that's how you end up with a session where The Dow gained 17 points, S&P lost 0.54%, but the tech heavy Nasdaq tumbled 1.18%. And a lot of that was the $10 loss in the stock of Nvidia, the world's biggest company. From the outside, today's action was just crazy. It was as if all the red hot tech hardware companies in video, amd, Western, Digital, Micron, Lamb Research, dozens of others suddenly lost their allure While the horrendous enterprise sulfur stocks and had their fortunes resurrected lazarus like and now must be bought and bought in a hurry before the big liftoff. Does that make any sense? Of course not. But it's what's known as a program. And on any given day, the program can rule over the actual market. Today, the out of hardware into software program that I spotted ruled the day. Allow me to explain. When I got started Goldman Sachs, I put together baskets of stocks represented different themes. Remember, that was long before we had ETFs. These baskets would let you make an immediate move on a host to say, pharmaceuticals or dump the semis, maybe short the financials. You can move quick, fast in a day, one session. No matter how much stock you had to accumulate, you could upend your whole portfolio. Put it in a totally different position. Of course, my portfolio moves never impacted the market. They were never big enough. But the program I saw today was gigantic and unforgiving, with a very simple logic. So sell the tech winners and buy the tech losers. No matter how well or poorly the actual individual companies may be doing. Most people don't understand how these kinds of programs work. They're not based on the specific fundamentals of individual companies. They're based on intuition. I believe that the market's paying too much for one kind of company and not, let's say, not enough for another. Now, in order for these huge programs to work, you need to wait for something that can hide what you're doing. The hedge funds that do these programs love camouflage. Last night Nvidia gave it to them by reporting a spectacular quarter with amazing growth and a roadmap to make trillions of dollars in a very short time frame. The gross margins were fantastic, the level of business extraordinary, the new clients fabulous. It was a tour de force quarter, but it made a terrific case for the next wave of artificial intelligence where these machines will actually be able to reason. Nvidia's new superchips are going to come out on time later this summer. We learn of a huge amount of business from anthropic and open air to not yet public companies that are taking the world by storm. Oh, and let's not forget the self driving cars and robots and digital twins that Jensen Wong CEO has told you are coming. They're here. Basically, Nvidia gave you everything you could ever want, including terrific guidance for the current quarter. The buyers all knew, which is why the stock caught fire last night and was really climbing. But it was all for naught. Why? Because today in video stock became cannon Fodder for the unannounced sell program that I detected from the moment the market opened. The stock started giving up points right at the opening bell. Crushed by a torrent of sellers. It was just unbelievable. And you can see the footprints of the suburb all the way down. If you know how these things work. And I do. Telltale sign it didn't matter how low Nvidia shares went. Did you notice that the decline was relentless? They never let up. They never let the bids build, let the stock stabilize. The client wanted out of all these hardware stocks in the same fashion. Just get it done. I don't care. 4pm off the sheets. Frankie. You know what? It was a bit of a joke how the whole thing went down. It really didn't matter how well or bad the hardware stock was doing. It had to get butchered. Broadcom, a huge multi year semiconductor winner got crushed along with KLA and Micron and Western Digital. As someone who always says own Nvidia, don't trade it. I was appalled to hear all the lame justifications all day for the decline by people never executed program and didn't realize that the program ruled. I heard Nvidia's customers were running out of money. I heard Nvidia didn't get enough from China, didn't get enough sales in China, didn't get any. Even as they told us this was going to happen. I heard Nvidia gotten way ahead of itself. But it's actually a fairly inexpensive stock on earnings. I heard AMD is dipping at their heels. And while Google and Amazon's chips are taking share there. Well, Nvidia could be roadkill. Weird. AMD was actually still down 3.5% today. I'm telling you it was the program. It's ridiculous. Nvidia's customers are spending fortunes on equipment and they can afford to cover the costs. These are companies with excellent cash flows, which means it's easy for them to borrow money. We all know the Chinese ship is probably sailed. No surprise there. At the end of the day, the amount of money Nvidia is making is extraordinary. Is only get better. Second telltale sign that it was all just an artificial program and not the reality of business. The absurd relentless buying of the enterprise software companies that have been written off for debt. Consider workday. How many times did I hear in the last six months the workday was going to be crushed by Anthropic, an AI company that can, let's say, mimic pretty much every software company out there? I never fully believe that story, but it's partially true and it killed the entire cohort. The pessimism was so thick around workday the stock was practically untouchable. Sure enough, after reported Tuesday night stock dropped 12 points like that 130 down to 1 7,117 and change ultimately as the stock caught two downgrades and a ton of price target cuts. But then midday workday started to rally and it actually finished Yesterday up nearly three bucks for tackling another six today. This thing went up 22 points from yesterday's close. We saw the same thing with Salesforce when reported last night. It's not. I'm going to get that workday. It. It rallied huge from the intraday low. I'm sorry, it's this stock. It dropped a quick 10 points from 191. This is Salesforce. Then changed down to 182. It looked over the release and I saw it had a monster $50 billion buyback. I couldn't understand the selling, but I have no illusions. Eventually Salesforce's stock turned around and rallied furiously finishing the session up $7.82 to close all the way up at $199. I'm going to have more on this one later. But you have a program trade taking over the market. The companies on the no and buy list become winners. The fact that the quarter was excellent is almost beside the point. Workday's guidance was dismal and it's rally just as hard as we saw some huge rallies in service now. Atlassian Datadog, many others in the same cohort that have just been horrendous real dogs. Trust me. That, I tell you is nothing to do with the fundamentals and everything to do with the big switch I'm describing. This rebound was all artifice, people. We don't buy sectors, we buy companies. And I have no idea if the sub program with Nvidia is over. I'd use the program to buy the stocks you'd like at discounted prices to where they should be. That because I've got to tell you, one gigantic account can create prices and the prices you're getting are better than I thought. The bottom line though, don't take today as a referendum on anything. Someone with a lot of money, and I'm talking about tens of billions wanted out of one group and into another. The stocks were treated as playthings of that account, not companies. They were puppets on hedge fund strings and they got jerked around all over the place. I prefer when stocks represent the fundamentals of the underlying companies but on days like today don't be fooled. The program is all that matters. Let's go to Bill of Massachusetts. Bill.

[Caller/Listener]

Jimbo. I started buying this equity in May and I've done very well. Last month it came in and dropped about $25 a share. I scooped up more. What do you feel is going to happen with GE Aerospace?

[Jim Cramer]

Well, they got Larry Culp working for you. I think that it's just a long term buy. There are going to be moments when it goes up and moments when it dips. And this is one of those stocks I say any dip that is any sizable, sizable at all. Let's go to Thomas in Georgia, please. Thomas.

[Caller/Listener]

Dr. Kramer, what an honor to be on your show, sir.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you for calling in. How can I help?

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah, I'm calling about this stock I purchased back in October of 2025 at $188 a share when it was going up and it went up Fast. Hit a 52 week high of $207 per share. Year to date, however, it's down 24%. Good earnings, cash flow is good. Revenue sales are good. The earning per share GAAP as a 234% and the price to earnings is at 212. Should I buy, sell or hold? What say?

[Jim Cramer]

Ye. And the stock is.

[Caller/Listener]

Oh, I'm sorry. Pelletier, Pltr.

[Jim Cramer]

I look, I like Palantir but Palantir is a very long term hold. It's way ahead of itself. It got way ahead of itself, then it's pulled back down. But they have a great business model. They have really smart people. The clients I know who like them just they can't say enough good things. So I'm going to tell you to hold Palantir. Let's go to Nick and Marilyn. Nick.

[Caller/Listener]

Hi Jim, it's Nick and Marilyn. Booyah, booyah.

[Jim Cramer]

Nick, what's going on?

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, I'm a first time caller, I'm an investment club member and I'm three quarters of the way reading your fantastic book how to Make Money in Any Market.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you. Thank you very much. This is a how to book. I did not. This is not a page turner about, you know, anything that's like my life other than picking stocks. Let's go to work.

[Caller/Listener]

Fantastic.

[Jim Cramer]

Thank you.

[Caller/Listener]

I just like your current take on a company that you did a feature on your show back around July 10th of last year. Hinge, health symbol.

[Jim Cramer]

We like change. We like change. Health. It's just kind of like Medline the other day. It's just going to quietly go higher. It's up three points today. That's a very big move. But when I see a stock like Hinge Health, I just say, okay, look, it's got a model for patient education to help the patients. They seem like level headed people and I just say buy that one and put it away. I think that one's going to do well for a long time. Look, I take today's action with a grain of salt. Stocks were treated as playthings by hedge funds who wanted to get out of hardware tech and into software tech. I prefer when the market treats each company on its own set of fundamentals. And Nvidia said is darn good. I made money tonight. Intuitive top and bottom line. Beat after the bell but will be enough to steer the stock out of the software storm. I've got the company's top brass to find out then. McDonald's has been one of the greatest growth stocks of all time and tonight I'm going to tell you why. I'm still loving it. And shares of what's Water, which you brought me up nearly 55% over the past year. And tonight I'm sitting down with the CEO to find out what's been driving this industrial stock higher. So stay, stay with Kramer.

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[Jim Cramer]

Nearly two months into the year, the worst performing stock in the entire S&P 500 is Intuit, the software company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks. Smaller business like Credit Karma, Mailchimp, this one's down more than 40% year to date, even if they're bouncing nicely today along with that whole enterprise software cohort. Now, I always felt like Intuit had more protection against AI disruption than the typical software play. And tonight, Intuit report a tremendous set of numbers with revenue growth in the high teens and a monster earnings beat. But management didn't raise their full year forecast. And their guidance for the current quarter, that is the most important quarter of the year because of tax season, also came in a little light. I say this is standard practice. These guys never raise numbers going to tax season. But that's why the stocks trading lower after hours. Earlier today we got to speak with Sassang the Darcy. He's the chairman and CEO of Intuit. Take a look. Mr. Gadarci, welcome back to Bad Buddy.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Great to see you, Jim. Thanks for having me.

[Jim Cramer]

Absolutely. Now I saw the numbers tonight. I got to tell you, we got to start there because they're very good. Total revenue up 17% year over year, margins better than expected, big bottom line beat. So why don't you give us some of the top drivers of how you did this?

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah, first of all, I'm very proud of the team, Jim. We performed in every part of the company. The business group grew 18% within that mid market grew 40%, which we're excited about. Our contracts are actually up 50% quarter over quarter. TurboTax grew 12% in a in a cycle right now where IRS returns are actually down 5 points. So our assisted segment is really on fire, doing very well. And this is by the way, the segment that grew 2 billion grew over 45% last year. And then Credit Karma grew 23%. And most importantly, it's actually creating a lot of tax demand because of the integrations across Credit Karma and turbotax. So super proud of the team. All of our innovation across data, AI and human intelligence is fueling our growth. So excited about the quarter. More importantly, as I look ahead for the rest of the year and into

[Jim Cramer]

the future, now, but you did not raise guidance. Now I know that last year this seems to be a quarter right ahead of a big one that you have not historically done that. I think this is just in keeping with what the way you run into it.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah, it's a best practice, Jim. We are way ahead of where we want it to be the first half of the year. But for us it's always important to get to through the third quarter and then we'll, we'll talk about our guidance after the third quarter. But it really positions us extremely well for the rest of the year and more importantly trajectory into the, into the year after. So stay tuned after third quarter.

[Jim Cramer]

I will. Now, I have long admired your company have been a customer on both sides. And what has concerned me lately is obviously the stock's little weaker, but it's all theoretical. There's a belief out there that you are easily mimicked by a I created software that there's no real touch that matters, that a third party can disintermediate you. I have always felt you as mission critical to the company's I views. Others seem to not think that. Could you explain to people why I think that if you use it, you'll know that it's mission critical?

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah. You know, Jim, first I would just start with we're all about results and all about execution and we're going to disprove the theories based on just the trajectory of our growth, which is accelerating. But now let me get to your question. You know, we are really in a category of one. We're in a regulated environment, which means that accuracy and compliance matters a lot and for our customers, consumers, businesses and accountants. And they make high stakes financial decisions. And there's a big liability if they get things wrong. Because every consumer, every business at the end of the day has to do their taxes right. The books have to be right, their accounting has to be right. And they demand a human expert to actually ensure that things are right on their end. Believe it or not, they demand a human more than they demand software, which is really where we come in. And the reason our growth has been accelerating is we now have an AI driven expert platform that has become a service in one place. We have a really married technology and human expertise in one place. It's why we're disrupting the assisted tax segment. It's why our business platform is growing 18%. It's why mid market is growing 40%. And it's, you know, you cannot replicate accuracy and compliance in a regulated environment through alarms, which is by the way why we have amazing partners that have come to us and Tropic and OpenAI because they see this liability that customers face. And I want to partner with us to help deliver the experiences for.

[Jim Cramer]

I mean this deal that you just made with Anthropic. No, I don't know if there's money involved, but I think that actually you get the better of it. They need your imprimatur.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah. And the thing I would just say is it's what's why those partnerships are even in place is because both Open Air and Anthropic are great partners, but they also understand and see that this is a regulated environment or compliance and accuracy matters and you can't deliver it through labs. And we've built a data model and an AI model that's domain specific with human expertise. That's what our customers demand. How does it work in terms of

[Jim Cramer]

the deal with getting paid? Are you getting money?

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah, to two aspects of this. One is what we've committed to. We have our Intuit Financial large language models, but we also use open source, we use OpenAI, we use Gemini, we use Claude. Based on delivering the experiences for customers and based on that trajectory, it's a multi year agreement. Well, we'll continue to have that spend with their LLMs.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

That's separate and distinct from the experiences for customers where we own the customer experience through APIs and, and MCPs. They're actually in our platform when they engage and we do not share in any of the economics.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay. Now there's other things that are happening that are pretty exciting. You're, you're going with a New York City flagship store, you're going brick and mortar. Why is brick and mortar necessary? I never. And Intuit needed to do that.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Yeah. So it goes back to the premise of where I started. You know, in our category, customers demand, they don't just expect, they demand human expertise. And when you look at our 300 billion in total addressable market, it's the experts, it's the bookkeepers, the accountants, the taxes pros that actually impact how the spend goes. And so now we've married technology with human expertise. And what we've learned is we need to be where customers are. So we now have 600 local service centers. And by the way, we've seen traffic

[Jim Cramer]

go through the roof.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Through early February we had 5.2 million visitors who are stores and landing pages. That compares to 4.2 all of last year. And so we're in your neck of the woods in soho and, and it's really, it's the marriage of human intelligence and AI that's fueling growth. That's why we've were, we're local, but we're expanding our margins because it's all technology driven.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, that's good. One last question. Can you give us a little kind of glimpse of how tax season is going?

[Sassan Gudarzi]

It's very strong. I'll start first of all with, with the facts, which is through early February, IRS returns are down 5 points and TurboTax is up 12%. But as we're, but as we're speaking today, right. We're almost in March. And so a couple of months in tax season has passed. We've got about six weeks left. And Jim, the thing that we are seeing is, if you remember last year, our assisted offering is a $2 billion business that grew 45%. And that is what's on fire this year. And so we see very good performance through where we are in February. We got six weeks left in the tax season. We see the strength of our pipeline because of our assisted offering. And I'm super excited to talk to you next quarter, tell you how we did me.

[Jim Cramer]

So excited to talk to you too. And you brought so much innovation to it. And you just keep doing it. It's very exciting. Sassan Gudarzi is the chairman CEO of Intuit after a very strong quarter. Sassan, thank you for coming on the show.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Thank you for having me, Jeff.

[Jim Cramer]

Nobody's back after the break.

[Sponsor/Producer Announcer]

Coming up, is it order up for McDonald's after the company's earnings report. Kramer's revealing whether he's still loving it. Next

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[Jim Cramer]

Earlier this month McDonald's reported terrific quarter and at this point with the stock at an all time high, I think it's pretty clear that the Golden Arch has really got its groove back. For a couple of years. I mean call it say mid 23 through the end of 25, Mickey D's basically traded sideways because the company was stuck in a rut. They had a bunch of small time problems popped out of the GOP Dash 1 weight loss drugs. They reduced your craving for everything including this kind of delicious food. Then we also had problems with people want healthier fast casual chains, margin pressure from steadily rising beef. There's no end to that. But really this stock was weighed down by the fact that McDonald's it simply got too expensive. From 2021 we had the high say till 2025. Really. We had the highest inflation in ages and this company, like just about everybody else, realized they could get away with an endless parade of price increases. But eventually they pushed things too far. Which is why their same store sales growth went negative in 2024 along with their earnings growth. Last year didn't start out particularly well for McDonald's either. With US same store sales down 3.6%. I am not used to seeing that number from this fantastic company. This is when the consumer really started pushing back on high prices and searching for value. Fortunately, McDonald's got religion on pricing before most of its rivals. In June of 24 they rolled out their $5 meal deal. Remember that? I loved it. A little over a year ago they introduced their McValue platform which lets you mix and match items at a very low price. Last September they brought back their extra value meals. Think the five bucks for that sausage McMuffin with hash browns and coffee. That was like 12 bucks I felt in my one out Long island or eight bucks with Big Mac meal with medium fries and medium. So not bad. McDonald's realized the consumer simply wasn't going to accept high prices anymore, so they stopped trying to fight it and it didn't take very long to work. In the second and third quarters of last year they put up high 3% global same store sales growth, but the real breakout came just over Two weeks ago, when the company reported a truly excellent quarter, McDonald's delivered a 7 cent earnings beat off a 305 basis, which may not sound like much, but you know that represents 10% earnings growth. In the previous quarter, their earnings were basically 4 flat. More importantly, this time they put up 10% revenue growth. Global same store sales jumped 5.7%. Wall street was only looking for 3.9% uptick. Those are magnificent numbers. Just in the US alone, their same store sales were up 6.8% which is a stellar number when we're still talking about such an enormous chain. The analysts only expected 5.4% domestic ups. Their international business. Oh, it's great. Although some of that's because McDonald's caught a nice boost from the weaker dollar. But we all knew that was coming. Now McDonald's doesn't give much in the way of forward guidance. This time though, they offered a higher than expected capital expenditure outlook. They're talking about 3.7 to 3.9 billion expenditures when the analysts were looking for 3.42 billion. But you know what? The stock didn't get punished. Most companies would. At the same time, management expected to get a 20 or 30 cent earnings per share boost from that weak dollar I mentioned. Meanwhile, McDonald's plans to open 2600 gross restaurants this year. They had over 4,45,000 locations the end of last year and they're betting that grows to 50,000 by the end of 2027. You imagine if you thought the company's best days were behind it. These guys have been doing their best to prove you wrong. Management says they can put up these strong numbers thanks to the focus on value, breakthrough marketing and menu innovation. Why don't we start with value? Because I think that's the key here. McDonald's said their various value meal options are already helping them take back market share with lower income consumers after losing so many of them in recent years when they got too aggressive on pricing. Management gets it. Here's how CEO Chris Kaminsky put it, quote, as I've said before, and I will say again, McDonald's is not going to get beat on value and affordability. He told me that once when I saw it was like I didn't mention whether he was going to, but he told me in terms of marketing, they still know how to reach their audience. Early last year, McDonald's had a very successful collaboration with Minecraft movie which little kids love. Company also had a great ad campaign with the Grinch. In fact, with their Grinch themed collectible socks, McDonald's became the largest seller of socks in the world for nearly a week. Just fun fact. Look, on a personal note, I've got to admit that I start to salivate whenever I get Those emails from McDonald's reminded me about the free Fridays. Free fries and Friday you get that comes. I know it comes in like 2 o'.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Clock.

[Jim Cramer]

My wife is a Wendy's girl. For her, nothing beats the Baconator. But McDonald's has it took in me for life. Like my late mom whose last meal on this earth was a Big Mac, fries and Diet Coke. If not now, when she said I'm not going anywhere else. Next up, the company had a lot of success with its new menu items. Despite what we've been hearing from the naysayers, their snack wraps, you know what? They took off like crazy. Remember, all the analysts were really negative on it. Now it may be you might think it's crazy to go to McDonald's for wrap. No. McWings did a lot of business in Australia and they're making something called the Big Arch Burger overseas that look, this is a double Cheese Pounder with cheddar. They had to name it something else because the rest of the world uses the metric system like the Royal Royale with Cheese Pit. Remember that in Pulp Fiction comes out in America next Tuesday. Look, this looks good, doesn't it? It's apparently New year. This is a preview that we got because we were able to order a few here to the stock exchange. Twice the calorie content of a Big Mac. Okay, this may not go over with the gopesh one people put it all together though, you can understand why the stock's up more than 9% for the year. At a time when Wall Street's turning against complicated enterprise Software plays this one, McDonald's has a simple story that the money managers are eager to lap up. We know how McDonald's operates and we know Claude can't spin up a network of 50,000 burger joints to compete, even if Claude knows how to write a press release better than anybody. Now, after its recent gains, the stock, it's not cheap, okay? At least not as cheap as it used to be. McDonald's sells roughly 25 times this year's earnings estimates. Basically right in the middle of its historic valuation range over the past decade. Plus, the stock gives you a solid 2.2% dividend yield. That's not nothing. When, of course, when the stock was lower, the yields better. I like a stock that's up. Here's the bottom line when it comes to McDonald's I'm still loving it. It's the perfect type of stock for the market where investors want real companies that make things and do stuff that can't be hurt by AI and we can easily get our heads around and our mouths around. Now that Mickey D's is going back to its roots as the best source of value around, the customers are coming back and so is the same store sales growth even after rallying more than 9% year to date. I'd be all. Fire.

[Caller/Listener]

Let's go.

[Jim Cramer]

For the hour in Ohio.

[Bob Pagano]

Ara.

[Caller/Listener]

Oh, yeah, Jimmy, I'm calling about Chipotle. I love the brand, but it feels like it's at a serious crossroads. Every time I talk to people, they say the experience is a hit or miss. The comp store sales been sliding for a while instead of slowing down and fixing the basic.

[Jim Cramer]

All right.

[Caller/Listener]

Is just titled to the metal opening new stores.

[Jim Cramer]

I mean we got to. Let's look at the thing objectively reported the last quarter and it was. It was right here. I said this stock's done going down and I am sticking with that judgment. I think Scott boat red is turning the ship and this is the level that you got to pull a trigger and buy some Chipotle. All right, listen to me. I got to say McDonald's. Well, look, I'm still loving it. It's a perfect stock for this kind of market we have right now. Hey, this arch, double arch, golden arch, two arch, five arch. I love it. Now much more mad money royale. All right, I'm going to sit down. What's Water technology? In a moment. The under the radar data center play has seen its stock rise nearly 20% already this year. I'm getting a fresh look at the company with the CEO. Then are the fears over an AI driven cesspocalypse overblown? I'm reviewing my conversation with Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff and showing you where I come down. Of course, Oracle is rapid fire tonight's edition of the lightning round. So stay with Kramer. Even though Wall street can't seem to make up its mind about the data center, there's still a lot of money to be made selling good old fashioned industrial hardware to these warehouses full of servers. Take what's Water Technologies, a more than 150-year-old company that designs and manufactures hardware to handle water flow with a rapidly growing data center business, especially as more of these facilities shift from air cooling systems to liquid cooling systems. Two weeks ago, what's Water reported a terrific quarter, a sniffing top and bottom line beat with a very strong full year forecast. There's a reason the Stock's up almost 55% over the past 12 months and nearly 20% year to date. So we have to ask, can it keep climbing? Let's check in with Bob Pagano. He's the Chairman, President and CEO of Watts Water Technologies. Learn more. Mr. Welcome to Man Money.

[Bob Pagano]

Thanks. It's great to be here, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, it is terrific to have you. And I know that we do want to talk a little data center. The analysts all data center, but there is a blocking and tackling that you do that has produced remarkable turns over many, many years. So how do you stick to your knitting?

[Bob Pagano]

Well, it's really easy. First of all, you have to have great employees, right? We got 6,000 great employees, employees around the world that care about our customers. That's the number one thing. And look at we've been around 151 years now and 60% of our business is repair and replacement, which is a nice annuity for us to have. And we really look at the other 40% from a new construction point of view. So you know, we've had an interesting market with the new construction market. As you know, residential has been soft. We've seen some positive in the institutional part of our business and certainly data centers has been offsetting some of the weakness we've seen in residential.

[Jim Cramer]

Well, do you think it was right on the, on the conference call, the data center stuff is so exciting that I can see how everyone, Jensen Wong last night video saying, look, we have to change the way we cool these systems. You have to be one of the bigger players in the business even though it's not a big part of your company right now.

[Bob Pagano]

Yeah, we, we have the cooling valves that are inside of a data center and stuff and we do other things like backflow preventers, drainage systems, strainers and some water quality stuff that all is, you know, great inside of that part of the business. And Jim, when you look at our, our key attributes, energy efficiency, water conservation and safety and regulation, those are our key three themes. And that fits beautifully into the data center market.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, definitely. Now you mentioned the kind of construction. I was trying to figure it out when I was looking at the mosaic, your business business, it's very hard to be as consistent as you are given the fact you are attached to residential multifamily too. I mean, how do you handle what has basically been a terrible downturn, a freezing of the market, of the housing market.

[Bob Pagano]

Really, it goes back to that large installed base.

[Caller/Listener]

Right.

[Bob Pagano]

There's a Shortage of plumbers. There's a shortage of building maintenance people. And they want reliable products that they can trust. They never want to go back to a job. So our plumbers and stuff request our products by name. Which is pretty exciting, that is.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, tell me about your I think very sound acquisition strategy. You don't seem to go in there and try to do the big deal. You are trying to hit singles and you hit singles constantly.

[Bob Pagano]

Yeah, that's one of the things we're always looking for strategic acquisitions where we always say one plus one has to equal three at least. Right. And when you look at some of the smaller acquisitions, they're reasonable multiples and we have the ability to transform. So Watts has been a company that's done many, many acquisitions. I've done 22 since I've been here in 12 years. So we've been adding a lot of value to our shareholders and in giving customers more solutions that they need.

[Jim Cramer]

Now you use something that I wish most people said. You have an 8020.

[Bob Pagano]

We do.

[Jim Cramer]

And I went. People may not have heard that. I know. I once I learned it first when I was at Goldman Sachs. But also it. I mean, there are companies that do this and it makes so much sense.

[Bob Pagano]

Yeah. I mean, look at, you know, when I first got with the company, we did a portfolio review and we exited 175 million of business of undifferentiated product. That really, it was a me too product that wasn't. It was a commoditized product. And we really needed to focus our time on energy, on solutions to our customers. We could charge a premium and add value to them. So that's a mantra. We do. We do that with all our acquisitions. A lot of times they want to sell everything to everybody. And we really look at. And it's about profitable growth, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Now, I was surprised, considering thinking about proper growth, that you have not been knocked from the loop by some of these incredible moves in the materials that you use in copper. It doesn't even seem to hit your bottom line when they're trading crazily well.

[Bob Pagano]

We're not bashful of putting price increases is in Jim. So, you know, when we see copper move like it does, everybody understands that copper is in our product, steel's in our product. So we try to stay in front of it with forward contracts we have with suppliers and inventory. And then we're not bashful about passing along price.

[Jim Cramer]

Now you've also, you've gone to Europe, you're doing a lot of stuff overseas that's Those can be tough, volatile markets themselves, but they've been pretty good for you.

[Bob Pagano]

Yeah, well, Europe, Europe is been tough in the construction market since the war. Right. So it's more of a replacement type market. So, you know, we're down 5% this year, but we're starting to see, we think it's starting to bottom out and starting to come back. But we have a growing position in Asia Pacific, Middle east and Africa and in China. So those are great opportunities along with 76% of our businesses in North America which is growing.

[Jim Cramer]

The most terrific. One last thing on the data center we, we keep hearing that the companies may run out of money before they can buy all their different put up all their data centers and that balances sheets are too stretched. Are you ever really worried about an Amazon's balance sheet or metal or a Microsoft? Does that make any sense to you that people are really that nervous about things?

[Bob Pagano]

Well, for now, you know, our contractors are busy. They're putting contracts in front of us. They see opportunity for the next three years. So three years in front of them right now, that's how busy they are.

[Jim Cramer]

All right. I like that's the best thing I heard today. I've got to tell you, I've heard so much negativity. It's great that you came on the show because I think you're right and the pessimists have been dead wrong. They went on a series days they won today, but that's about it. I want to thank Bob Garner, CEO of what's Water Technologies? It's wtf. When you see a chart like that, what that means, it's a stock you own. You don't trade in that. You just own it. You can't ever forget it because we are buy and homework. But this is the kind of stock

[Sponsor/Producer Announcer]

you need to own.

[Jim Cramer]

We have Money Specific

[Sponsor/Producer Announcer]

coming up. You've got questions. Kramer's got the answers. Get charged up for a fast fire lightning round next.

[Jim Cramer]

It is time. It's time for the light brown Craig match with Bravo Crown. These heinous stocks head above it. Buy sellers cold head thumbs up Prince of Gregory, Mike Planet Sound and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? Ski Dads on the ram Crazy money. Let's start with Jeff in Florida. Jeff

[Caller/Listener]

qxo Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

Okay, that's Brad Jacobs company. I don't bet against Brad. That's roofing. Normally it shouldn't be doing right now in the, in the cycle, but Jacobs will pull it off. You can buy it. Let's go to Mark in Colorado.

[Caller/Listener]

Mark.

[Jim Cramer]

Jim from Boulder, Colorado.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Excellent.

[Jim Cramer]

What's happening? Oh, absolutely.

[Sassan Gudarzi]

Okay.

[Jim Cramer]

Stock I want to ask you about had a great quarter, great guidance, initiated a $1 billion buyback, but the stock has been hammered this past month on growth.

[Bob Pagano]

Beers.

[Jim Cramer]

Talking about Reddit. Oh, I think you buy Reddit. In my book on how to make money in any market, I struggle to make it one of my absolute top five stocks because I think it's worth so much more than what it's selling for. Let's buy that one. I want to go to Eugene in Connecticut. Eugene. Booyah.

[Caller/Listener]

Hundred times, Jim.

[Jim Cramer]

All right, what's happening? How you doing?

[Caller/Listener]

It's such a pleasure to speak with you.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, thank you, Eugene. Thank you. I have a good time here. What's going on with you?

[Caller/Listener]

I'm a modest investor, and I watch your show every night, and I've been doing so for years.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.

[Caller/Listener]

With that being said, I would love your opinion on Archer Aviation.

[Jim Cramer]

No, I'm not as into these stocks as others. I just think that Archer and Joby, they are kind of that. Remember that year of magical investing? That thing ended. So we don't want to participate in that anymore. Let's go to Jack in Ohio. Jack. Hi, Jim. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, Jack. How about you? I'm doing better.

[Caller/Listener]

If you can give me some advice on Ford Motor.

[Jim Cramer]

Ford's coming back, man. Ford has been looking real good of late. People forget this thing is. This thing is starting to really chug along, and I am so thrilled for Farley. I think he's a terrific guy. And this is gonna pull. He's gonna pull it off. I'm not kidding. It's going higher. Let's go to Woody in Virginia. Woody. Booyah.

[Caller/Listener]

Sir James.

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, Sir James, I love it. Thank you. My honor, my question is about universal display. Its ticker is O, L, E, D, D. Oh, boy. I've got to tell you, I know this is going to come a time when we should recommend this stock, but that time is not yet here. I'm going to Andrew in Homestead, New Jersey. Andrew.

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, Jim. I'm one of the 1366 outgoing members of the YSC, and thus my interest in intercontinental exchange. My question pertains to what is the relationship with MSCI and spgi? Is it just licensing fees?

[Jim Cramer]

Oh, icpo. Well, yeah. Well, one is Standard and Poor's and the other is for the old Morgan Stanley index, the International. And the one MSCI is the one I prefer. That's Henry Fernandez, I admit he's a friend of mine, but I can tell you he's a great businessman. The stock was down. Some sort of AI fears that were dead wrong. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round.

[Sponsor/Producer Announcer]

The Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff has offered an impassioned defense of software stocks, including right here on Mad Money. So should you believe it, Jim's revealing his take next.

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, Jim, your mission has been very successful in our family. I listen to your show multiple times a week for investing knowledge. I just want to say thank you. I love your show. Thanks for always looking out for that.

[Jim Cramer]

A huge thank you for all you've done to make me a better investor. I got a call, Kramer, because I can't make a move without this guy. I want to make people better investors if they make money. Fantastic. Let's go to work. When Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, came on the show last night, he said he'd had it with the bearish rap about how his company was about to be run over by the SaaS apocalypse. That's the software as a service apocalypse supposedly orchestrated by artificial intelligence. The idea here is that the software as a service companies are dead men walking, and Salesforce is pretty much the poster child for the entire industry. But great CEOs know how to handle these moments, and Benioff's among the best in the business. Last night, he came out swinging. Listen to this,

[Caller/Listener]

Jim. The part that's ridiculous is that we are projecting 46.2 billion in revenue. Jim, the first time I was on your show, I think it was a billion in revenue. That, of course, was one of our first SaaS apocalypses. You know, remember that you said I had to come on the show because it was a SaaS apocalypse. And then, you know, we lived through the 2020 SaaS apocalypse. When you're like, oh, how are you going to survive through the pandemic? And here we are, Jim, we're in another SaaS apocalypse. Well, it's a series of SaaS apocalypses.

[Jim Cramer]

Every time the company managed bounce back. But the profits of doom say this time is different. They argue that much of what Salesforce does can be mimicked easily and for far less money by software created with anthropic Claude code. And even if anthropic doesn't wipe them out, software as a service companies tend to be. They charge by the seat, meaning per user. And I can take the place of many of those seats. So Salesforce will make a lot less money per client. When Salesforce reported last night, the overall numbers were excellent. But the company did seem to take a couple of hits in its older products. At the same time, Salesforce has an AI platform of its own for agentix. Agent Force Digital agents that can do the work of people for much less than you pay a human. And that business, it's on fire. Small, but on fire. In a highly unusual move, Mark actually brought on two clients of Agent Force. The AI division is generating $800 million in annual recurring revenue. Windham Hotels, that's the largest hotelier. And Shark Ninja, we had them on the show. It talked about how Asian forces saving the money by doing the easy stuff, saving the hard calls for humans. They describe an almost euphoric world where robots handle the drudgery so that the people can focus on the real work. A cornucopia merged with a utopia and higher earnings per share to boot. Initially, the stock sold often after hours trading, but it only managed to catch fire today, rallying 4%. I think one of the big reasons for that is that market announced a $50 billion buyback. Now that's not bad for $187 billion company. He said the cash flow can cover it as well as a small dividend boost. Basically, if the stock market refuses to give Salesforce the benefit of the doubt that, well, they're just happy to repurchase their own shares at a big discount to what they think it's worth. I think he's serious about snapping up all that stock because he's certain that the sellers are making a mistake and they do have a ton of cash flow. Overall, Mark was trying to communicate a very simple idea. Salesforce sees the damage that I can do to enterprise software, which is why his companies invested so heavily in agents that are taking share and taking names. He said that his AI agent initiative is grabbing business from Viva and Pharmaceuticals Relations and servicenow. Whoa. In information technology, he's heard what the bears are saying, which is why he's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. This is my favorite version of Mark Benny. I have a fired up CEO with a new product that I think can take the world by storm. Asian forces annual recurring revenue was up 169% year over year. They've already done 29,000 deals since it launched on our show at dreamforce back in September 2024. Even though the enterprise software cohort rebounded today, things have grown dim for the group. I'm not in denial like Salesforce. Most of them are still doing the numbers, but they're not blowing away the way they used to. Salesforce is no different. It's seen as slowing its older channels and it's bet huge on Agent Force to stay relevant. When Mark came on last night, I didn't want to see him go downswing, but I never thought he'd be able to go upswing, which is what happened. After that interview. I too questioned the SAS apocalypse. Sure, it could be tough for a couple of quarters as Salesforce transitions to a much more agent heavy model, but I'm now convinced they can pull it off. Only because I've seen this company down before and it's always been a mistake to count them out and I'm betting this time it will be no different. I like to say, as always, bull markets are my problems. I find it just for your man money. I'm Drew Pamer. Thanks. See you tomorrow.

[Legal Disclaimer Narrator]

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its 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 Kramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy and and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com mad moneydisclaimer this is

[Bob Pagano]

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[Jim Cramer]

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[Jim Cramer]

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