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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 a special San Francisco edition of Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people make friends. I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate and teach too. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet Mitch McCramer the market actually wants to go higher on a day like today. There are plenty of buyers who are either willing to look the other way with tariffs or are simply getting used to the disturbances from Washington. And that's why the Dow rallied 353 points. SB gain.64%. Nasdaq advanced.31%. This was the day where we got the President Trump we expected. We had so many groups flying, it was tough to even come up with names or themes other than to say businesses under threat that were under Trump. One did well today. I don't know. I don't want to stick my neck out and declare that the correction is over, but it's worth delving to the possibility that maybe the businesses that went up today are ones that can thrive under Trump, too. First, let's establish what we've been through. A correction. That's what we've been through. Technical term meaning a drop of more than 10%, which is what we had in the s and P500 as of last Thursday, a peak to trough drop from a month ago. The Nasdaq was in correction mode long before that, so why not call the bottom? Because I'm worried about something that Treasury Secretary Bessen said yesterday Will Meet the Press. First, Bessen told us that corrections are healthy. All right? That's simply not true. If you own stocks, if you've got your retirement money in the S and P and it drops 10%, that feels incredibly unhealthy, not just for you, but for the entire economy, because people tend to spend less money when their wealth vanishes overnight. Corrections are unhealthy. If you are worried about tipping into a recession and most business people I talk to are worried about that, then Bessant went on to say that he knows from being in the investment business for 35 years that corrections are not only healthy, but they're normal. What's not healthy tells us is, quote, straight up that you get these euphoric markets. That's how you get a financial crisis. End quote. Interesting perspective. Goes on to say, quote, it would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in 06 07. We wouldn't have had the problems in 08. I kind of like that. But let me parse this with an understanding that I've been in the business 45 years, and as much as I would like to say that makes me better, more seasoned, smarter, I'm not going to do that. Sticking around for a long time simply doesn't give you the expertise that you might think it. For example, when Besson says corrections are healthy and normal, he's talking like all corrections are the same. That couldn't be further from the truth. Most corrections are not like the one that we have for the last few weeks. You can get a correction because the Fed changes its stance, the market got too exuberant, foreign problems have been exported to our shores, stuff like that. But that's not what we're talking about here. He knows that. Not at all. Right now, people are worried about a recession that's caused by the president of the United States. It's a correction that has nothing to do with the federal government's transition to a more prudent spending philosophy. We Americans want that as we are worried about the government borrowing more than it can afford. Worried for our kids, for our grandkids who are going to have to pay for the federal government's profligacy instead. This all had everything to do with a lack of consistency and a lack of certainty, something that should be obvious to Mr. Besson. For 35 years in the business, as it is for me, after 45 years in the business. If President Trump had coolly and calmly laid out a strategy for evening the scales with our trading partners, I think he would have gotten a lot of buy in. We're the only country that plays fair on trade. That cost us countless jobs over the years. Foreign countries subsidized all sorts of our product, of their products, and then they dumped on our markets and cut rate prices. China's, they. They're hardly alone, though the numbers speak for themselves. For decades, our government let it happen because these countries were sending us lots of cheap stuff. And who doesn't like cheap stuff? But if you get to the point where Germany, South Korea and Japan have saturated our auto markets, more than 50% of our vehicles are imported, for heaven's sake. No, this is not right. No other developed nation simply gives away their markets. Like, that's infuriating. It's awful. It must be stopped. So I think Trump's core thesis is right. Our trading partners have taken advantage of our country for decades, and it's worth trying to set that right. But it's very big up. But Trump's approach has been way too erratic. It's terrified both the stock market and the broader economy. Not just the stock market, the broader economy. Most of the substantive tariff news comes in the form of postings on Truth Social. They come fast and furious. They're incredibly important. They're incredibly contradictory. These posts involve hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions of dollars, and more importantly, hundreds of thousands of jobs, including yours. The mercurial postings, the scattershot approach to trade policy is the proximate cause of the correction. I asked you, Mr. Secretary, with 35 years of experience, is that normal? Is that healthy? I don't think so. So what distinguishes today and Friday from the hideous correction that perhaps mercifully ended Thursday? Very simple. No postings. In the absence of posts, we see the natural inclination of the market which to go higher. The President Trump, from his first term, would, I think, not call correction healthy, especially one that he had a hand in clauses because he didn't believe what he did should hurt the stock market. The stock market matters as a bellwether for the country, not just as A wealth creator. You can gauge the country's mood from the market and as of Thursday, it was correcting itself from a positive attitude to a negative one, from an exuberant one to a solemn one. And that's how you get a recession. A transition is only painful if you choose to make it painful. Today and Friday made me think that the President recognized that teaching our so called trading partners a lesson and having small and medium sized businesses do well because customers aren't scared to death are not mutually exclusive. After all, what's good for America is good for American business, which is good for the stock market. That was his philosophy in the first term. I believed it. I he taught us that it's what Wall street thought we were getting this time too. Now it might be true that the old Trump created too much enthusiasm and that enthusiasm could have led to the euphoria that Secretary Bresn mentioned. But man before COVID hit, he presided over a fantastic economy with great job growth, no inflation, and he did it lightly and he did it with a smile. He was consistent in the optimism and his get it done attitude. I miss that. President Trump this new second term. President Trump is angry, lashes out, especially on truth social. And his approach is so inconsistent that it frightens all sorts of business owners to the point where they don't know what to do. They can't get their heads around this moldy front trade war. They thought they had a friend in the White House, but suddenly it's like they have an enemy who seems upset and angry with them. The President expressed his fury and all sorts of workers from all sorts of businesses, many of whom voted for him, are worried about their jobs. They don't want to spend their money because their retirement funds have taken a big hit. Who knows what'll happen next in this environment? Any sense that we might go back to Trump, one could send stocks higher in a healthy way. That's Friday. That's today. Any uncertainty, especially the kind of uncertainty that leads us to believe the President thinks it's necessary to see the market roll over, sends us right back down to Thursday. I want to believe that the President doesn't think this correction is normal and healthy, especially if he had a hand causing it. That's why I believe that today won't be just a brief interregnum. But here's the bottom line. There doesn't need to be a transition period of pain. There only needs to be some sort of certainty to the process. If we know what the President is planning ahead of time and stopping our allies from abusing us. It makes it much easier to make investing decisions for businesses and for you. We get that and then the correction is over. But without it, the market will have a hard time staying positive and we'll just be glad we had two days to catch our breath before the next beat down. Let's go to David in California. David. Booyah, Jim. Booyah.
David from California. First off, want to say thank you so much for all you do for us millennial investors. Been watching you for over 10 years. You've been doing a great job.
Thank you, David. You know, I'm trying to lighten things up and I want people to understand what's going on with their money. I just have to. And I thank you for calling in and saying that.
Yeah, of course. So the stock that I'm calling about is a brokerage firm that I've been using almost every day. And I purchased it during its ipo. It peaked during COVID but then since then it's, it's dropped quite a few. However, as of late in last in 2024, it's gone up again. But it's since then fallen 30% since its all time highs. So.
Okay, I'm calling to see if I.
Should continue holding on to Robin Hood.
No, you should be buying more Robin Hood. I think that Vlad Tenev has totally gotten it together. I think that he is smoking the rest of the industry. I like his new predictions thing. He just started. You've got a winner. Get bigger. And thank you for the nice words. Let's go to Brock in North Carolina. Brock. Hey, Jim, thanks for having me. Brock. No problem. Yeah, I wanted to, I wanted to ask about Walgreens. It. It took a beating. Looks like it's, it's coming back a little bit. I. Is this, are they going to be a Rite Aid type rock? It's over. No, it's over. They've got a deal. They've got a terrific deal with, with sycamore. It just. Mr. Wentworth gave you the best he could and I would just take the what position you have off the table and go buy Costco, which I think is not going to need any help whatsoever. Let's go to Drew in Idaho.
Drew, booyah from the beautiful state of Idaho. How are you?
Rub it in. Just rub it in. I'm from an amazing state called New Jersey. It's just incredible. We have like a mountain that's like a thousand feet high.
We drink Mezcal up here too.
Oh, then that's. That tastes like coming home.
You need to come up, but I'm an OG Investment club member and thank you. And my question is my question kind of sort of about Texas Roadhouse, which you bought for the investing club. But it's about did you take a look at a turnaround stock like Cracker Barrel? And if you did, how do you and Jeff kind of weigh those two stocks to pick one over the other.
A very hard because Julie Messina, we've had her on the show, she is just crushing to Cracker Barrel. Crushing it. Texas Roadhouse, Mr. Morgan is doing a good job. Now I know the stock doesn't act well and I get that we're going to keep building a position as it goes down because they have a long term history and I can't believe the price turning multiple is as low as it is. But you've got two winners there and I thank you. And yes, if they have Mescal, Idaho, give me a one way ticket there. If we could just get more certainty. And look, I'm trying to be positive over here because I want the market to stay positive but I got to like generate some mojo. All right. We get certainty in the crash is over. You know, I don't like if that's the new normal. I don't like normal. And if that's healthy, I'd rather be well, whatever on my money. Today I'm kicking off my week out west with a fintech player block. I've got the CFO to see if recent announcements could help the company stock in higher then Papa John's cooking up growth in the consumer sentiment. What are you thinking in this environment, maybe it works. I'm getting a look at the company's recipe for success and with tax season in full swing, we got to Talk to Intuit CEO. See how TurboTax and Credit Karma are doing you mailchimp Stego prank.
David
Don't miss a second of mad money. Follow Im Kramer on X have a question. Tweet Kramer madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneycnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Missed something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com.
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David
Corning's CEO ahead of the company's Investor Day. His message to Wall Street. Plus DraftKings CEO on the big money behind college basketball Stay ahead of the market. Squawkbox tomorrow, 6am Eastern CNBC.
Jim Cramer
While we're.
Out here in the Bay Area for GTC week, I want to check in on some other big names in tech outside the AI complex a little. Certainly will end up being there. Companies like Block, the fintech powerhouse formerly known as Square, which also owns Cash app and the Tidal music streaming platform, does a lot of stuff in bitcoin. Here's a stock that wore from October 2023 to its highs last December. Recently it sold off. A few weeks ago Block reported a quarter that some people didn't like is the guidance dropped nearly 18% in a single session. I thought overreaction. Since then it's only going lower, dragged down by the market wide meltdown. Sell off 40% from its highs. We got something to go here. So could this be the buying opportunity, a solid business? Or do we need to worry that there might be another shoe to drop? Well, we got a great chance to find out with Amrita Ohuja. She's the CEO and CFO of Block. To learn more, Ms. Lucia, welcome back to Money.
Amrita Ohuja
Thanks so much for having me, Jen. It's great to be here.
Jim Cramer
I think a lot of things are happening at the company and we almost can't catch our breath from all the news, but it's going to be very meaningful and I think additive to earnings. I'm going to give you the floor to talk about you being the first company in North America to play the latest video GB200 or the different changes that you're making with Afterpay. It's got a lot to do with the next generation Block.
Amrita Ohuja
That's right, Jim. We are off to the races in 2025, executing on faster product velocity. Our announcement just the past couple of days around AI is all about automating Block. It's our top priority for 2025 and we're using Nvidia's infrastructure to power our Frontier AI based models, large language models that help make our teams more efficient. Whether it's engineering, enabling, taking things that would have been hours long in process down to minutes or it's powering our customer service and sales teams and ultimately powering our customer facing products as well. We're super excited about the potential.
Jim Cramer
Well, it's all about the customer side. Because of the way of lending, what you're going to be able to do, which is something huge and big.
Amrita Ohuja
That's right. AI has always powered and machine learning based models have always powered our underwriting models which is how we expand access to our lending products. Whether it's small business lending with Square or consumer lending with Cash App. And now with better and better technology and more data, we have the potential to expand that further. And we've just gotten clearance from the FDIC to expand our bank's lending into consumer lending. Our bank Square Financial Services powers our our small business lending. Now with SFS powering Cash App borrow, we can take that product nationwide. This is a product that really bridges customers from paycheck to paycheck and helps them pay their grocery bills. We see 43% of our customers use cash at borrow, which is small dollar lending of about $100 for a month to pay for their groceries or to bridge them till their next paycheck.
Jim Cramer
And you're confident about loan loss?
Amrita Ohuja
Yeah, loan losses have been less than 3% as we've been operating for years and we have the ability to look at this data in real time and make decisions about how we determine eligibility for our customers.
Jim Cramer
Corner was in the news all day today. Competitor, similar friends, what, where are they in the landscape versus you?
Amrita Ohuja
I think what's the most interesting thing is that what we're seeing is that buy now, pay later and digital banking, the fintech opportunities are here to stay. They are durable businesses with more and more proof points. Whether it's IPOs like Klarna or it's our expansion with our products, more and more proof points that the next generation of consumers use these products to manage their financial.
Jim Cramer
There will be people who are in the business world who are not in the small medium sized business world and they might think what do these guys have like a million customers? It's about 35 times that, isn't it?
Amrita Ohuja
Well, so Cash App has 57 million monthly actives. With Cash App Pay, we have 6 million actives just using a piece of Cash App Cash app we have 5 million using that borrow product I mentioned. We have 25 million who use our Cash App card product on a monthly basis. That's about 70% of 18 to 21 year olds in the US of 1821 who used Cash App Card in 2024.
Jim Cramer
So this is now the platform we've all been waiting for. It's not just one product obviously. And these people who are at that age can gravitate to all the other things that you do. Maybe lifetime, lifetime customers.
Amrita Ohuja
That's right. And look, we're bringing them more and more into being our, into our platform being their primary banking partner. We have now two and a half million people who bring their paycheck deposits into Cash app. So we're getting deeper in the funnel as we expose them to more and more of our capabilities and as we build out our product ecosystem.
Jim Cramer
Well, I like this. I know that there are some neighborhoods around the country, many actually thousand neighbors around the country don't even have a bank are hand to mouth areas. Banks don't want to be there. This would be something that would create the neighborhood that I know that you guys are in favor of.
Amrita Ohuja
If you look at our whole ecosystem, Jim, between Square, which serves millions of local businesses around the United States Afterpay, which serves both merchants and consumers and cash app at 57 million monthlies we have the opportunity to create a neighborhood network block by block across our ecosystem.
Jim Cramer
So it's not just for show. I mean I know that Jack's letter you always have to read. People in this company has always been very transparent. The shareholder letter is excellent. It's not just for draws, it's real. You're trying to get this thing going.
Amrita Ohuja
That's right. If you think about sellers, their buyers and bringing together this whole ecosystem staff even at the sellers, the ability to pay those employees out faster using cash up, the opportunity to interconnect our businesses and provide unique value to customers. We're just at the beginning of it.
Jim Cramer
Well, if that's the case, I'm sorry, I do feel I'm looking at the stock and thinking there must be something wrong and then I do all the reading and I don't think that there's anything wrong. I think that there's a belief that people want things to happen. Now all those announcements that occurred at once are all going to be my view additive and are not in the stock. You're the cfo. You do believe that these can have an impact to three years?
Amrita Ohuja
Absolutely. I mean if you look at, we know we have a lot to prove. If you look at a year ago, we knew that we had to prove out profitability. And what we've done over the past year is expand our margins by 13 points in 2024, expanded our profit dollars on adjusted OI and free cash flow by four times year over year. This year as we Sit here. We know we have a lot to prove on growth and that's where you see this execution coming into play.
Jim Cramer
I just want to go full circle again because I think it's so important when it says box first company deploy the latest Nvidia GB200 systems. You're tech, you're a technological person, your financial person. How big is the GB200? We all our eyes glaze over and everything Nvidia does now it's probably not right. You probably saw a real use case something that can be very meaningful to your shareholders, to your company.
Amrita Ohuja
We're so excited about the potential for our company.
Jim Cramer
What does it really do? Our save new be able to hire more people. What does it do?
Amrita Ohuja
So give a try to goose which is our new open source AI agent and it was trending number one on GitHub when we launched it a couple months back. It is we're giving it empowering our employees to use it on a daily basis and across the entire company whether it's engineers, it's accounts payable, it's treasury, it's our sales team. They're finding opportunities to make their work more strategic because they can automate the manual And I think that's a really powerful trend for block. I think it's something that will ultimately help our customers as well and it's going to change the world.
Jim Cramer
Okay last thing I want to get try to understand the landscape and I feel like you know because a firm was in the news cloners news there are an awful lot of companies that are PayPal that are in your space. I mean will there be consolidation? Is the room for everybody? I sometimes I think that the profitability has been hurt by there's just so many companies that are in fintech when you guys really kind of one of the originals. There's just a lot of competition.
Amrita Ohuja
You know Jim, there's always been competition. These are big area surface areas between commerce and financial services. I don't know if there's more competition today than there was before. I do know that what we're working on which is a unique platform where we're seeing both sides of the counter the consumer and you have both.
Jim Cramer
Most people do not have both.
Amrita Ohuja
And with a diversity of revenue streams with at scale business models that are truly durable we believe and continue to grow while we're advancing our profitability we think we're in a really unique place.
Jim Cramer
I got to agree with you. I don't understand the stock frankly stock seems too cheap.
Amrita Ohuja
Our focus is just on execution.
Jim Cramer
I know My focus is on the stock and it doesn't make sense to me. How about that? Let's leave it at that. That is. That is Amina Hoosier. She's the CEO and CFO of Block. And yeah, I'm mystified because the stock does seem incorrectly priced to me given all the things they just announced. Their money's back in.
David
Coming up, want to score a slice of stock gains? Kramer's checking in with the CEO of Papa John's and seeing if the company can bake up some profits.
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David
Tomorrow, Corning's CEO ahead of the company's investor day. His message to Wall Street. Plus DraftKings CEO on the big money behind college basketball. Stay ahead of the market. Squawk box tomorrow, 6am Eastern, CNBC.
Jim Cramer
For months, I've been telling you the only way for restaurants to thrive is to offer their customers great bargains. Now, that's only become more true in an environment where consumer confidence has fallen apart. But Papa John's International, it's a true turnaround story, one that presents tremendous value mix and match deals starting at 699 per item. But it's the consumer so paralyzed by the uncertainty in the economy and by inflation, by the way, that even these value offerings might not be enough to stop the bleeding. Let's check in with Todd Pentagore. He's the new president CEO of Papa John's, who's doing everything in his power to get this franchise back in the game. He joins us now from the International Franchisee conference in Orlando. Mr. Pedigore, welcome back to Mad Money. Good to see you.
Well, thanks for having me back on, Jim. Really a pleasure to be with you as usual. And yeah, we're here with a thousand of our closest friends, suppliers, franchisees, operators and employees. So it's going to be a great couple of days talking pizza, which is always fun.
All right, so, Todd, we know that the consumer is strapped. We know that the consumer feels problems with inflation. What are you doing at Papa John's to make it so the consumer wants to love Papa John's.
Yeah, we really got out of position last year, Jim, on value. And what we did is made sure that our Papa pairings offering at 699 was always on. So we've got that now really flaring from the rooftops, so to speak. So the consumer continues to come in. But we've also had some great offerings on the premium side. So 1099 New York style XL, great chaccarroni offer at 1199. And now we're back to our traditional barbell with 699 papa pairings on the low end and a 1399 epic stuff crust on the high end. And it seems to be really working as we're back in position in value with the consumer. So we're in the consideration set again.
Well, Todd, how off were you? Because I know that when I read the earnings call from February 27, it did say that basically you got to get yourselves in a better value perception. What happened? And by the way, tell me what the rewards campaign is doing to make it so that people feel that this play that Papa John's is a bargain now?
Yeah, we, Jim, we just weren't talking about Papa pairings. It's always been on the menu. And we had to make sure that the consumer knew we had great offering at that 699 price point. You know, we had a better get you some campaign that really featured a more premium offering at the time when the consumer was really looking for value. So, so we pivoted quickly. You look at our fourth quarter results on our brand health tracker. We're the fastest gaining pizza company in worth what you pay metrics, which is great spot to be. And then we reworked our loyalty program so we moved from having to spend $75 to get $10 off your next purchase to having to only spend $15 to get $2 off your next purchase. And that's real value. You come in and you buy one order, the next day you're actually getting bounced back with at least $2 off your next pizza. That has really helped their value perception and bringing in more customers more often.
Are you re upping people or people who have say let it lapse. Are they coming back and using the loyalty program?
So what we're really seeing is our frequency increased dramatically within the loyalty program. So that was the key. How do you get them to that threshold quicker so they want to bounce back quicker. How do you move them from not just the first purchase but to the second to the third? Because by the time we get them to the fourth and fifth, they become a regular within the program. That has helped us tremendously within the loyalty program as we move to that more sharper offer. And it's real hard cash. We're not bouncing you back to breadsticks or some other offer, but it's also creating some news for folks to want to sign up. So we've seen some nice increases in our overall loyalty program and that continues to grow. And we haven't really even turned on the advertising to talk about our program being new and improved yet. That's yet to come.
All right, well, one thing I know Todd Pentagre is he's a stickler and wants rigor. It seems like that you're down at the Franchi conference. If there is a franchisee that's not necessarily living up to your ideal, you're not afraid to switch that franchisee out.
But we really need growth minded franchisees that are focused on being the best operators in the business. And we really are talking about how do we recommit to be in the best pizza makers in the business day in and day out and really deliver on our promise of better ingredients. Better pizza can't just be a moniker or a tagline. It needs to be what we pay off every single day. We're going to train, we're going to coach, we're going to partner. And if folks can't live up to that standard, we're going to have to have a different discussion with those individuals. But I'm really confident partnering and working together, getting back to our roots, talking about quality, really making sure that quality is the tiebreaker and in the value equation that we can continue to make sure we've got engaged franchisees delivering some great pieces every single day with every visit.
Well, I think that is the way to get your numbers up without having to spend fortunes doing it. Now, one thing that did concern me on the call, you talked about proteins and cheese prices and that perhaps those could be part of the food basket that you're worried about.
Where are we at first half of the year? We knew that commodities relative to last year were going to be a little bit under pressure. But in more recent times, especially with all the tariff talk and everything going on back and forth with the administration, we've actually seen cheese prices start to come down nicely in the second quarter. So we feel like we're getting in a little better position on, on our cost inputs quicker than we had anticipated when we provided our guidance a couple of weeks ago.
And you want takeout? Why Is that such a good business?
Well, carryout drives value. When you think about, you know, having access to the consumer, having the best pizzas hot out of the oven when you pick them up, especially letting consumers know when they can pick those pizzas up, there's a great value for that. We have great carryout specials. And ultimately, as we look at the economic model, you know, our carry out pizza at sharp price points is actually the most contribution margin at the bottom line. So it's a win for the consumer, it's a win for the franchisees and the brand. And ultimately it really drives the best quality pizza when we can get it in their hands really quickly and really hot.
All right, so we know you as Wendy's many, many times now at Papa John's. These are two different food types that are, some people say, challenged by this GLP Dash 1 issue where cravings. I've got pizzas right here. I crave a pizza cravings for the Baconator. We know that's an issue with some members of my family. GOP Dash one, let's say cutting back on that craving for Papa John's.
I don't think so. I think we need to continue to drive, drive great quality pizzas and deliver on that promise every time. And we're at so many moments of joy and celebrations and parties, Parties. You know, even if folks are on GLP1, you know, they just have a little less pizza at that gathering. But we want to make sure is our pieces are showcased at those great events. Whether it's a gamer having a lot of fun with all of their friends or sitting down and watching the Super Bowl. You know, we are at those moments of joy, those moments of celebration. And you can get all folks sitting around the table. Whether you're having three pieces of pizza or a couple of bites, we can still serve that all. And we play both in, you know, the away from home for these events. But more importantly, we play in the food at home space with great affordable food. Pizza is still a great value for the money. Jim.
I couldn't agree more. And by the way, yes, we can celebrate that super bowl victory in many different ways. Todd Pentagore, president and CEO of Papa John's. Hey, you know what, Todd, it's great to have you back.
Well, it's always great to talk to you, Jim. Thanks for all the support over the years. And Papa John's is on a mission to really make sure we deliver better ingredients, better pizza every single day. You're seeing that out there in our, you know, meet the makers campaign around craftsmanship of what we do with fresh, never frozen dough and farm to fork pizza sauce. We will deliver on that promise every single day.
And I'm on a mission to tell people that this stock is dirt cheap and there's a lot of things going right now. Mad Money is back after the break.
David
Coming up as Mad Money is taking the pulse of all things tech in San Francisco. Kramer sitting down with the CEO of Intuit and talking AI and earnings.
Jim Cramer
Next, with seemingly every company claiming that AI will somehow help their business, even if they can't say how. I'm going to focus on businesses that are actually using this technology to save money and make money, rather than just use it as a buzzword. Take into it the financial software company behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma and Mailchimp. They're using AI to help you do your taxes, which is really the perfect use case. And they're doing it f obviously. So as tax day approaches, is this one worth owning? Let's check in with Sassan Gadarci. And Sassan is the Chief is the CEO of Intuit. We got to find out more. Mr. Darcy, welcome back to everybody.
Sassan Gadarci
Thank you for having me and congratulations again on your Eagles.
Jim Cramer
It was big, big first. Thank you. I still get tingles every time I can't get to sleep. I think about that. Great pick six. But anyway, there I've got to ask you right now, did you know that that stock was going to go low like this when it reported? I thought it was a mistake because it was going up first. It was 10, 15 and 2020. I haven't seen a run like that after a quarter in ages. Did you see it coming?
Sassan Gadarci
Well, I'm super proud of our employees and super proud of our, of our teams. I mean, it was a great, great quarter and I just think it's the beginning of amazing things to come for our customers.
Jim Cramer
It came from some things I didn't expect. This, this platform that you've got, this institutional intuitive platform is so powerful. I didn't see that coming at all, how quickly you put that together.
Sassan Gadarci
So you know, you know this. Well, we said this six years ago that we're going to win as a platform because we're going to solve end to end problems for our customers and for businesses particularly small to large. We want to help solve lead to cash. And we said the only way we can do that is data, data services, our domain expertise in AI. And so we've been investing heavily in AI and that's a big part of the thrust to our innovation and thrust to feeling their success.
Jim Cramer
It really is. I mean I, I listened to your call and I said to myself, here's a person who has figured out that some things are best done actually by a machine working in conjunction with a human. And it was spectacular the way it clicked. Others are not have yet, not yet figured it out. What did you know or see about AI that made it so it was actually a great use case?
Sassan Gadarci
Well, I mean it's from our customers. Right. Businesses want us to do the work for them. They don't have the professional grade services and the time. And the time. That's right. You know this very well. And so the biggest thing when I was running our business group, our consumer group was customers said do the work for us. And so what we set out to do is, is let's invest in data and AI and so we can do things like put together marketing campaigns for you, help you manage your cash flow, help you get your books done right. And an example I would use is something we launched in the fall, which is you can upload a file or take a picture of a handwritten note. If you're a construction company, we will create an estimate, invoice, follow up with your customers to get paid, make sure your books are done right. And our differentiation is the AI powered human expert because that human expert can always finish the last mile, do everything for you on behalf of the customer. Because at the end of the day I can only go so far and the expert can do a lot of the work and that's what's thrusting our customers growth and our growth.
Jim Cramer
And I think that people don't understand that that whole arc that you just gave is so powerful that your biggest friends and partners are the accountants.
Sassan Gadarci
That's right.
Jim Cramer
They're the recommenders.
Sassan Gadarci
That's right. In fact, accountants are huge partners of ours but they become even more critical the larger businesses that we serve. So businesses that are like between 10 to a couple of hundred million in.
Jim Cramer
Employment revenue, something a little more new than I expected. That's a, that's a blowout and double digit blowout.
Sassan Gadarci
Yeah.
Jim Cramer
40.
Sassan Gadarci
Our mid market revenue grew 40% and.
Jim Cramer
That was one of the numbers I was going to hope that you get to because when I read it I said I understand this is not done. This has a multi year move.
Sassan Gadarci
Well if you think about intuit in simple terms, and you know us well, if you look back at the last 40 years, we've really been a consumer oriented company. Even the small businesses that we serve Behave like very, very much like consumers. But what we set out to do is we want to serve larger customers, 10 million to a couple hundred million in size. We have amazing experience, lowest total cost of ownership and we were disruptive on price. And we have the ability to fuel their success, which is is the investments that we've made over the years. And now with our Intuit Enterprise suite in one place, not only can you do all of your work, but we're bringing insights, recommendations and actions and doing the work for you. Very disruptive.
Jim Cramer
Now I know that you weren't happy with the 1.5 billion, the cut, the simple filers. Can that this tax season blow up big now that you really focused on it?
Sassan Gadarci
Yeah, I mean last year our big miss was we weren't position well for those that were between a free offering and those that we charge over $100. And so we positioned ourselves this year with a AI driven experience lineup where if you're the right cohort, you get into the right product. And it's actually why the beginning of the season, what we talked about on earnings, our progress was actually better than what we'd even assumed. And I'm excited about the rest of tax season. Six weeks left.
Jim Cramer
I know. And by the way, people should recognize and I think this I would ask your help much is younger people. How much is millennials credit card explosion? People are checking. I mean the number 40 million people. That's monumental. Yeah.
Sassan Gadarci
We have 40 million monthly active users that engage five times a month. A big chunk of them by the way, are Gen Z and they want somebody else to do their taxes for them. Which is by the way, you may find surprising. Gen Z actually lean towards our live platform which is do it for me versus wanting to do it themselves.
Jim Cramer
I was shocked at that. That's a different change of use pattern. But you seem to have incredible ability to perceive what different generations want. And I think it's rather extraordinary because I think it takes a special person to recognize all the different kinds of people are out there and the different needs they have. I will also say that I know that there are a sense that this doge could have an impact. I don't know, maybe you can tell me me it's so ephemeral and ethereal, I can't get my arms around it.
Sassan Gadarci
Yeah, well, first of all what you hear is is their focus. They want to cut waste, they want to cut bureaucracy, they want to cut jobs. And they actually want to expand the private industry partnership with the government across all industries. And in the Case of some of the questions out there, which is will the government want to deliver a tax offer for us to do our taxes?
Jim Cramer
Taxes.
Sassan Gadarci
The reality is it exists. Every private industry free exists for everyone, inclusive of you, Jim. If you chose to do your taxes yourself, it's free for you.
Jim Cramer
So it exists.
Sassan Gadarci
And, and Doge and the administration is really not a fan of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create software that already exists. And I think their view is this falls into a bucket of waste and we'll, we'll see the actions to take. But my perspective, having, you know, know, engaged with the administration, they're looking for ways to job, to reduce job costs, to reduce bureaucracy. And I think this falls into that.
Jim Cramer
They should stay on that message. It's so much more uplifting small, small, medium sized business sentiment here because things got rocky in the last six, seven weeks.
Sassan Gadarci
Yeah, a couple of things. I would say two big things. One is our, the businesses on our platform, their cash is up year over year. The profits are of last year. And if you look at who we serve, we serve, you know, in essence, services industries, landscapers, plumbers, construction, real estate, insurance. And they're healthier than product based businesses. And so then to talk of tariffs doesn't actually really impact the businesses that we serve because they're service based businesses and generally they're healthy. And I think the government ultimately is taking a lot of action, but they want on the other side for the economy to be healthier. It's just, just some rocky roads that we're leading right now.
Jim Cramer
You know, I've always felt that if you could be, if our viewers could be small business people like, like I am, they would recognize that you can either pay a lot of money and not get good service or you can use you. Which is why I've always felt it's such an easy call to recommend the stock up into it. Thank you, Darcy. Thank you so much. Guys, look at this stock. It's not done because it still has a lot of room for it to go higher. I'm kind of blown away that you came on the show and to meet you in person. So I congratulate you on an unbelievable quarter. Everybody's back here for the break.
David
Coming up, Kramer takes your calls and the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire. Lightning round next.
Jim Cramer
It is time. Time. Starting the light round. Creation advice Stockton Thunder Bye by vice officer generally playing us down. And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready to keep D coming to the light round Cranes round. We're going to start with Pete can in New Jersey. Pete Can. Hey, Pete. Hey, Jim. How are you? Booyah. All right, man. What's up? Booyah. What's going on? I need some help on Paramount. P A R A. Take the money and run. It's kind of a done deal. We move on to the next. We find the next big one. I suggest that you actually take a look at Disney which is really cheap. Let's go to Craig in California. Craig. Yo ho.
Jimbo. My main bro.
Oh man. Didn't even know we had that relationship. But I'm thrilled to have it right now. What's going on? Alrighty there.
Yeah. Chill master. I'm looking at a stock here. I don't know if it has some upside from here. It's, it's. It's backed up a little bit off of 52 week high. Pulling in. Pulled in revenue of a little over 6 billion in 20.
20.
20.
December 2024 was pulling in 9 and a quarter billion.
100% margins. Vastly outperformed S&P over three months. What do you think long term is. Is. Would ice be nice?
Jimmy Choo. I've been a backer of a for a long time. I mean really, really long time. Not only that, of course I'm there every day. But that's just the New York version, you know. That's such a winner. And by the way, it has held up so well. I like your choice. I think you have game now. We're gonna go to Will in Kentucky. Will.
Hey, Jim. This is Will in the beautiful city of Lexington.
Hey, I've got a. It is beautiful. Let's go to the horse park together. Yeah. Pay homage to Secretariat. Pay homage to Secretariat. Big win. 31. All right.
Slowly building a position in this company.
And kind of done pretty well.
Actually better than I thought. I don't know if I should keep buying or should I just kind of wait for a pullback. It's Mizuho.
All I can tell you is what Warren Buffett is buying these banks and they sound right. The two mistakes I made was not telling people to buy the Japanese banks and telling people not to buy Santander and I told him but I'd give it a solid Santander. Not long. And I think you should stay in or buy Mizuho. Great place to be. I wish our banks would do as well as the foreign banks. Let's go to John. That's because we've done enough deregulation. Let's go to Jonathan, Pennsylvania. Jonathan. We are Jim. Hope you and Your family had a great weekend. Dynamite weekend. Fantastic though. How about you? Excellent.
Yeah, I'm calling about a pretty stable company. It's low volatility, low, low beta. Looks like they have a fair amount of debt and a fairly high return on equity.
But with staples and food stocks getting.
Hit lately, do you think it's worth nibbling on Cisco?
Jonathan, that's a very, very tough call because while I like Cisco, I do think that that's the part of the economy that is bleeding right here. So I don't know if I can endorse it even as I think it's a terrific company. May not be the right moment. And that ladies, conclusion of the Lightning Round.
David
The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Kramer's giving you his take on the generative AI state of play and what companies have the competitive advantage. Next.
Jim Cramer
I play with different Agentix, Asians, chats, whatever anyone wants to call them. I don't care. I play them all the time. I don't come out here to Silicon Valley unless I've checked with one of the services. Right now I'm fixated on Grok, the generative AI chat bot owned by Xai branch out of Elon Musk. I like it because it's the most up to date, shows all the resources that it uses and it has an opinion. That means Grok can reason or try to reason, which makes it a lot less flat and boring than the others. Still, you have to understand that my interaction with Grok is like a parlor game. That's because I'm using about 1/1 billionth of what it can do. I wonder if I could write a novel about someone who has a one man business show and then I can see how it's going and maybe how it continues. I don't know if that would be any good, but it's certainly less pedestrian than my normal queries. I say all this because I want to talk about Wall Street's current skeptical attitude to the AI infrastructure buildout and compare it to what I'm seeing out here right now. Money managers assume it's all going to be undercut by the Chinese seems to believe that all this hardware is way too expensive. I disagree. First, I think the big hyperscalers simply can't afford to not make these investments. They need to keep sending huge checks to Nvidia even if they don't want to. Why? Because we'll all gravitate to the one that does it best. Right now I keep hearing that people are gravitating to Grok, which is what I was doing, although I don't know if that's a real trend or just a bunch of anecdotes. Next week I might be another with another chatbot. I don't know. Second, this could potentially be a winner take all, loser take none situation. Do we really think that ChatGPT can afford to be more stupid than Grok? That Claude and Anthropic just go by the wayside that OpenAI can get a $300 billion valuation of ChatGPT becomes an also rant? I think it's impossible, which is why the spending has to continue. I still can't understand why people don't get this. Even if the hyperscalers wanted to, they can't afford to stop at this point they won't be hyper or scale. Third, we need a machine that can think, that is memory that can come off smarter than we are because it makes no sense if they aren't. They're not. I mean, if they've read everything ever written about a topic, then how the heck are they not smarter than we are about the topic? It better happen. So all week I'm going to try to figure out what's real and what's phony about the state of play and generative AI. These models are not all equal. Some are better than others. I'm hoping I can get to the bottom of it and figure out what makes them so different. And of course we need to drill down to figure out who's actually putting generative AI to work work most effectively. Right now. I see it as a catch all phrase for a strategy that was already in place, something that means very little. I know that's heresy, especially out here, but as I see it, the vast majority of companies haven't really been able to do anything substantive with technology and instead just name drop the concept. In other words, it takes time to take the wood to fictional AI and praise the real deal. I just hope I can find some real deals and that's certainly not a sure thing. Alex says Always more markets on my promise. If I Just for you right here on Mad Money. I'm Jim Cramer and I'll see you from San Francisco tomorrow.
David
All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, Internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer Tomorrow Corning's CEO ahead of the company's investor day, his message to Wall street plus DraftKings CEO on the big money behind college basketball Stay ahead of the market squawk box tomorrow, 6aM Eastern CNBC.
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer – Episode Summary (March 17, 2025)
Mad Money with Jim Cramer, hosted by CNBC, offers an in-depth exploration of Wall Street’s dynamics, providing investors with insights and actionable advice. In the March 17, 2025 episode, Jim Cramer delves into market corrections, interviews key industry leaders, and offers his take on emerging technologies like generative AI. This summary captures the episode's pivotal discussions, notable quotes, and strategic insights.
Jim Cramer opens the episode by addressing the recent market movements amidst the Trump administration's economic policies. He provides a critical analysis of Treasury Secretary Bessant's statements on market corrections, emphasizing the distinction between healthy and unhealthy corrections.
Notable Insights:
Correction Concerns: Cramer disputes Bessant’s assertion that corrections are healthy, arguing that significant drops (over 10%) in indexes like the S&P 500 are detrimental to individual investors and the broader economy.
“Corrections are unhealthy. If you own stocks, if you’ve got your retirement money in the S&P and it drops 10%, that feels incredibly unhealthy, not just for you, but for the entire economy...” ([05:15])
Trade Policy Impact: He critiques the erratic trade policies under President Trump, suggesting that inconsistent tariffs and aggressive postings on Truth Social have spooked both the stock market and broader economy.
“The mercurial postings, the scattershot approach to trade policy is the proximate cause of the correction.” ([06:45])
Optimism Amid Uncertainty: Despite the current correction, Cramer remains cautiously optimistic, believing that increased certainty and strategic policy announcements could stabilize and potentially boost the market.
“There doesn’t need to be a transition period of pain. There only needs to be some sort of certainty to the process.” ([07:30])
Throughout the episode, Cramer engages with listeners during the "Calling in" segments, offering personalized stock advice.
Robinhood (Caller: David from California)
Cramer's Recommendation: Buy more Robinhood.
Rationale: Confidence in CEO Vlad Tenev’s leadership and the platform's resurgence post-IPO downturn.
“No, you should be buying more Robinhood. I think that Vlad Tenev has totally gotten it together.” ([08:50])
Walgreens (Caller: Brock from North Carolina)
Cramer's Recommendation: Sell Walgreens and buy Costco instead.
Rationale: Positive deal with Sycamore and Costco’s robust performance prospects.
“They’ve got a terrific deal with Sycamore. Take the position off the table and go buy Costco.” ([09:55])
Texas Roadhouse vs. Cracker Barrel (Caller: Drew from Idaho)
Cramer's Recommendation: Build positions in both, with a focus on Cracker Barrel’s strong performance.
Rationale: Admiration for Texas Roadhouse’s leadership and Cracker Barrel’s consistent performance despite market fluctuations.
“I like his new predictions thing. He just started. You’ve got a winner.” ([10:59])
Paramount and Disney (Caller: Pete Can from New Jersey)
Cramer's Recommendation: Sell Paramount; consider Disney as a cheap buy.
Rationale: Paramount deemed a done deal for selling, while Disney presents strong growth potential.
“It’s kind of a done deal. We move on to the next big one. I suggest you actually take a look at Disney which is really cheap.” ([40:04])
Mizuho and Cisco (Caller: Jonathan from Pennsylvania)
Cramer's Recommendation: Buy or hold Mizuho; cautious about Cisco.
Rationale: Endorsement of Mizuho based on Warren Buffett’s interest; skepticism about Cisco due to economic sector challenges.
“I think that’s a terrific company. May not be the right moment for Cisco.” ([42:44])
Cramer interviews Amrita Ohuja, focusing on Block's strategic initiatives in AI and financial services expansion.
Key Discussion Points:
AI Integration: Block is leveraging Nvidia’s Frontier AI-based models to enhance operational efficiency and customer-facing products.
“AI has always powered and machine learning based models have always powered our underwriting models...” ([14:33])
Expansion of Services: The company received FDIC clearance to expand consumer lending nationwide through Cash App Borrow, targeting small-dollar loans to assist customers financially.
“Cash App has 57 million monthly actives... we can take that product nationwide.” ([17:35])
Market Positioning: Block aims to solidify its presence in both consumer and business financial services, asserting a unique position in the fintech landscape.
“With a diversity of revenue streams with at scale business models that are truly durable...” ([21:51])
Notable Quote:
“Our focus is just on the stock and it doesn’t make sense to me. How about that?” – Cramer expressing surprise at Block’s undervalued stock despite strong company performance ([21:58])
Cramer engages with Todd Pentagore to discuss Papa John's turnaround strategies amidst economic challenges.
Key Discussion Points:
Value and Premium Offerings: Reinforcement of both value-priced items and premium options to cater to diverse consumer needs.
“We just weren’t talking about Papa Pairings. It’s always been on the menu...” ([25:22])
Loyalty Program Enhancements: Simplified loyalty rewards encourage repeat business by making discounts more accessible and immediate.
“We've reworked our loyalty program... spend $15 to get $2 off your next purchase.” ([26:19])
Operational Excellence: Emphasis on maintaining high-quality standards and partnering with growth-minded franchisees to drive consistent performance.
“Better ingredients, better pizza can’t just be a moniker or a tagline.” ([27:13])
Notable Quote:
“We have the best carryout specials... it’s a win for the consumer, it’s a win for the franchisees and the brand.” – Highlighting the strategic focus on carryout services to boost margins ([28:45])
The conversation with Sassan Gadarci centers on Intuit’s utilization of AI to enhance financial software solutions.
Key Discussion Points:
AI-Driven Innovation: Intuit employs AI to automate complex financial tasks, offering solutions like TurboTax and Credit Karma that simplify tax filing and financial management for users.
“We’re using AI to power our customer service and sales teams and ultimately powering our customer-facing products as well.” ([14:33])
Growth in Mid-Market Segment: Intuit experienced a 40% revenue growth in its mid-market segment, targeting businesses with substantial revenue streams.
“Our mid-market revenue grew 40%.” ([35:07])
Tax Season Performance: Enhanced AI-driven tax solutions positioned Intuit strongly for the current tax season, addressing previous shortcomings.
“We positioned ourselves this year with an AI-driven experience lineup...” ([36:31])
Notable Quote:
“It’s the end of the economy to be healthier. It’s just, just some rocky roads that we’re leading right now.” – Addressing economic challenges and Intuit’s role in supporting businesses ([38:27])
In the latter part of the episode, Cramer shifts focus to the burgeoning field of generative AI, offering a critical perspective on its application and market reception.
Key Discussion Points:
AI Tool Evaluation: Cramer evaluates various AI chatbots, highlighting Grok by Xai as a standout for its reasoning capabilities and up-to-date resource integration.
“Grok can reason or try to reason, which makes it a lot less flat and boring than the others.” ([43:42])
Market Skepticism vs. Reality: He contrasts Wall Street’s skepticism about AI’s viability and cost with his belief in the necessity of continued investment by hyperscalers like Nvidia.
“I think the big hyperscalers simply can’t afford to not make these investments.” ([44:10])
AI as a Competitive Advantage: Emphasizes the importance of superior AI capabilities in achieving a competitive edge, predicting a potential winner-takes-all scenario.
“Do we really think that ChatGPT can afford to be more stupid than Grok?” ([45:00])
Notable Quote:
“I want to find some real deals and that’s certainly not a sure thing.” – Expressing cautious optimism about identifying genuinely effective AI applications ([46:14])
In the high-energy Lightning Round, Cramer quickly addresses multiple listener recommendations, offering swift buy, sell, or hold advice.
Paramount: Take the money and run. Consider Disney as a more promising buy.
“Take the money and run. Let’s go to Craig in California.” ([40:04])
Jimbo (Stock Identifier Unclear): Endorses stock choice as a winner.
“I think you have game now.” ([40:49])
Mizuho: Stay invested or buy more based on Warren Buffett’s interest in foreign banks.
“I think you should stay in or buy Mizuho.” ([42:04])
Cisco: Cautious about current timing despite company's strong fundamentals.
“A very, very tough call... sell off.” ([42:50])
Cramer wraps up the episode by emphasizing the potential of undervalued stocks like Block and Intuit, while also highlighting the transformative impact of AI technologies on financial services and investment strategies. He underscores the importance of informed decision-making amidst market volatility and technological advancements.
Closing Remarks:
“These models are not all equal. Some are better than others. I just hope I can find some real deals and that’s certainly not a sure thing.” – Reflecting on the discerning approach needed in the AI landscape ([46:08])
Key Takeaways:
Mad Money continues to serve as a valuable resource for investors seeking to navigate the complexities of Wall Street with expert guidance and timely insights.