← Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer
Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/14/25
00:44:18
Listen to Jim Cramer’s personal guide through the confusing jungle of Wall Street investing, navigating through opportunities and pitfalls with one goal in mind - to help you make money. Mad Money Disclaimer
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- [00:00]
Multicare Representative
Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because Multicare has been here guided by a single making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@ multicare.org trading@schwab is powered by.
- [00:33]
Ameritrade Representative
Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills. Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos and more, all curated just for traders. Plus guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more@swap.com trading.
- [01:24]
Jim Cramer
Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to America. Otherwise, friends, I'm just trying to make you a little money. My job? Not just to entertain, but to educate. So call me 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet with Jim Cramer this morning, listening to our network, I heard a fund manager blast this market because of all the froth. Our excellent anchor Frank Holland pressed her on the notion of froth and she reiterated that the market was riddled with it. To which I say, if this is froth, bring it on. Honestly, this market really does have a lot of froth in it, something we see every day, including this one where The Dow dipped 11 points, SB advanced 0.02%, Nasdaq edged down by 0.01%. But you have to ask, why hasn't the froth that we're all aware of destroyed us? You know why? Because there are enough very positive stories out there, stories that make so much sense they can overwhelm the froth with rationality. For example, today we had a giant run in Amazon, up almost 3%. Why? It's a follow on move from yesterday's announcement that the company will be moving to same day grocery delivery, which the analysts wrote about overnight. Now, this is an incredibly disruptive initiative that's basically ignored yesterday. Given that delivery is free with Amazon prime, it could spell real problems for Instacart, perhaps even Doordash and Uber. Just as importantly, this announcement changed the narrative about Amazon. You see, for the past two weeks, the story of Amazon was about how its AWS business had fallen behind Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, its principal competitors, because it's using its own slower chips instead of buying them from Nvidia. It was a very damning storyline this week, though, we remember that Amazon's also a retailer, arguably the best retailer in the world. That's rational, not frothy. How about any liability after that disappointing pill form the GOP Dash 1 drug, which didn't cause enough weight loss. In the subsequent clubbing of Lilly stock, insiders started to buy the stock like crazy. CEO David Ricks and board member J. Eric Freiwald, the CEO of IFF, not of his IFF, bought $1 million worth each. Daniel Skavronsky, the chief scientific officer, he bought $634,000 worth. And Jacob Van Narden, he's president of Lilly Oncology. Oncology bought $647,000 worth. These are not small amounts. They're not painting the tape, so to speak. This is a big deal to me. The insider buying says you should buy Eli Lilly, too. And I rerated the stock positively for my charitable trust. Today's monthly CNBC Investing club meeting. Rational. Charles schwab announced a 17% increase in net new assets month over month. That's an amazing gain, and it totally justifies the stock's 2.3% move. Rational. The US might take a stake in intel because its balance sheet needs some help, as we learned late this evening. Rational. But how about the fourth we never stopped hearing about? Okay, first, let me explain this concept. How do we explain Froth itself? Well, it's a little like what the late Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography. I know it when I see it. But basically, a frothy market is one where lots of stocks keep roaring higher on at best hype. For example, yesterday an alpha called Bullish came public. I find that name in itself irrational. You don't name a company Bullish when a bear market could always be in the offing. And at some point, there will be a bear markets. Like putting a target on your back. I know that Bullish is meant to be the institutional version of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange for the big boys. Of course, this kind of thing should have been done by a national bank we all know. How about a JP Morgan? But they missed out. They were too worried about a future regulatory crackdown that never came. Call them not visionaries. Bullish had an explosive gain right out of the gate yesterday. And even though it pulled back from its highs, you it rallied another 10% today. Problem is, the documents indicate the Bullish plans to prioritize stablecoins on the Solana network, a cryptocurrency that few people use. Why? To make Salon go up. Because it wants the currency to be well known. Who knows? Irrational. Bullish. The company is as frothy as it gets. Or take D Wave Quantum. I think quantum computing could be a huge. A huge way to disrupt almost everything someday. A fast way to do high performance computing for certain Rational. Assuming you're betting on this technology for the long haul. But is anyone really doing that? When I listen to what D Wave wants to do when they came on our show, which is pretty much everything and how it's gotten the money to do so largely by selling it the money stock to the meme steers who bid it up. I say irrational Frothy Oklahoma wants to build a small nuclear reactor that runs on nuclear waste. Love it. We need nuclear power. But it may take years to build. Make that years and years. Even if it's a small scale production. The stock's up 247% year to date because this administration is even more pro nuke than the previous one. But man, it's really hard to construct a nuclear reactor. The process takes forever and the cost overruns are often endless. I'm not so sure why OKLO would be any different. Irrational Flying car, supercharged crypto. ETFs secret of companies that consult in magical ways. All irrational. I could go on and on. Is the widespread irrationality a reason to sell down your positions in perfectly rational stocks? Absolutely not. There are too many Amazons and a large but not overwhelming number of irrationals. So I think we're fine now. I'm sure many of the skeptics out there would say that there are so many new companies buying a huge amount of crypto on margin. These skeptics want to understand crypto, but they can't get their arms around it. They don't get how there's a consultant company that's won over both the government and the private sector by saving portions like Palantir. This stock more than any other, any quantum or nuclear biotech, is the one that truly rankles them. To me, that's the most irrational view of all. Not about Palantir, but about the view that they have. Palantir is a talented company with a messianic leader who knows how to win big contracts. It's just very hard for this to value the stock. If you use traditional metrics like earnings per share, the valuation looks insane. But if you use the rule of 40 the way we do on this show to judge enterprise software stocks, you can understand why this thing must stop running. It's incredibly cheap. Palantir Rational. Let's just say there's no method to its madness. Now here's the most important thing I can possibly tell you at this moment. We had a perfectly good market like this in the 1990s with much higher interest rates. It kept growing for the better part of a decade. Then we got to the fall of 1998 and we began to see stocks like Circle Internet or or Figma or Bullish popping up and going sky high. They would rally and rally for no reason. The year went on. Both got worse and worse. In 1999 we lost the rational side of the market. All that mattered was the irrational. Hundreds of companies came public in this period and nearly all of them were gone two years later. Along with a whole generation of investors who permanently soured on the market. By the time we got to 2000 it was almost pure fraud. We were talking about companies that had no revenue, no business plan. We saw companies all doing the same thing. Search engines, dark fiber pipes or Internet retail. And they had nothing. But it is so obvious. When we have 10 palantirs and nothing but D waves and a dozen more IPOs like bullish, then we're in real trouble. That's what the late.com look like. But that's not this market. Sure there's froth, but there are also perfectly legitimate moves in the stocks. Greater a greater great companies. I have been calling this the year of magical thinking. But the truth is you can't get the runs in the good ones without the runs and the bad ones. The bottom line, we are nothing like the end of 1999. We are nothing like March of 2000 when the dot com bubble officially burst. So don't quit the market because of quantum computing or jets and cars. We are still in a word, rational. Sam. And Massachusetts. Sam.
- [09:45]
Caller
Jim, I got a question about one of the biggest companies in Europe. That is Novo Nordisk. You see shares have recently taken a 64% dip from the recent highs. And I'm wondering what you think about whether or not investors should be considering buying this tip given that this they're very poorly run.
- [09:59]
Jim Cramer
I don't know this new CEO but they are incredibly poorly run. And I'm not going to bet that they suddenly going to change stripes. I, I, they take my breath away about how bad, how poorly they are. Frank in New York, please. Frank.
- [10:11]
Caller
Hey Jim, how you doing?
- [10:13]
Jim Cramer
I'm doing well. Frank. What's happening?
- [10:15]
Caller
Hey, hey Jim. Finally it looks like SOFI has arrived. Do you think this could keep growing into the 35 $40 area?
- [10:24]
Jim Cramer
Okay, so I recommended this stock at 40 at $4 $5 $6 456-45-6456 anybody who listen to me, I want you tomorrow to take your cost basis out and you let the rest run and we will be thrilled. That's my take on this one. Can't buy it now. Cost basis out rest run. Our current environment is nothing like the one we had around the dot com bubble. So don't quit the market just because of some speculative names going higher even as they are frothy. Everybody Tonight are students rethinking the cost of a college degree and focusing more on technical skills. I'm checking in with trade school Universal Technical Institute to get a better read on the situation. Then Cisco, the newest holding my chapter just reported yesterday. I'm breaking down the numbers of the software security company and network company and giving you my post earnings thesis a little more positive than the market. We held our monthly meeting for subscribers to the CNBC Investing Club earlier today. You know I want you to join and we had so many amazing questions that we figured we'd answer some tonight. You do not want to miss this so stay with Kramer.
- [11:31]
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- [11:55]
Ameritrade Representative
Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills. Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos and more all curated just for traders. Plus guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more@Swap.com trading@Capella University Learning the right.
- [12:24]
Capella University Representative
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- [12:36]
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- [12:47]
Jim Cramer
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- [12:49]
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- [12:59]
Jim Cramer
What in the world just happened to the stories stock of Universal Technical Institute? That's a company that offers training programs for jobs and transportation, skilled trades and Health care, among other fields. Last week the company memorably ticker UTI reported what might have seemed like a better than expected quarter. It was a nice top and bottom line beat management raising their forecast for full year revenue and new student starts. But somehow the Stock plunged nearly 19% and it kept sliding lower since then, largely because Universal Technical also reported weaker than expected new student starts. Now some of that comes down to the fact that the stock was up more than 90% over the previous year going into the quarter. So I think it was priced for perfection. But let's find out what happened with the stock so we can figure out what to do going forward. Let's check in with Jerome Grant is the CEO of Universal Technical Institute. Learn more about the quarter, what's coming. Yes. Mr. Grant, welcome back to Man Money.
- [13:49]
Jerome Grant
Hi Jim. Thanks for having me on the show.
- [13:51]
Jim Cramer
Okay.
- [13:51]
Jerome Grant
Great to see you.
- [13:52]
Jim Cramer
Great to see you. All right. So sir, I have to tell you, I. I'm mystified. Look a good number to me. I think that your business is good. I looked over, first I thought that maybe there were too many defaults that didn't check out. And then I thought that maybe there weren't enough people in the schools that didn't check out. So I got to figure out what the heck these people sold the stock for.
- [14:11]
Jerome Grant
Yeah, well, I think, you know, there's a couple of things, you know, reaction to a quarter where people may have thought that starts were going to be stronger than they were. But you know, unlike traditional higher education, UTI has a start every three weeks. Some quarters there are four stars, some quarters there are five stars.
- [14:32]
Jim Cramer
Right.
- [14:32]
Jerome Grant
Last year in 2024 we had five starts. In this quarter, this one we had four. The starts were not going to grow in the quarter. We don't guide by quarter. We guide for the full year. Year to date, UTI's starts are up over 14%. Our health care starts are up 16%. It was just a cadence issue in the quarter.
- [14:53]
Jim Cramer
Well, I thought, I totally understand that. Then that makes sense. And the reason I say that is because I've been wanting to ask you from when I heard you were going to come on the show, who does have a better return on investment these days? With I, for instance, really kind of running all over the place in white collar, Someone who went to a $90,000 a year for your institution or someone who went to your school for 11 months and got a good job.
- [15:19]
Jerome Grant
Well, you know, Jim, there's a lot of variability around that. There are some great four year educations engineering, science and math degrees that have great ROIs. And we don't take anything away from that. But there's a lot of conversation going on right now about are all of the four year degrees giving the same sort of roi? You look at things like, you know, wind turbine technicians that projected to be up 68% in terms of jobs over the next five years and you know, starting salaries in the $60,000 range. Dental hygienists start near $80,000 a year. So there are great ROIs in both ends. And what we're seeing now is people are just being much more practical about where they think they're going to see the roi and we're benefiting from that.
- [16:03]
Jim Cramer
Let's take the notion of autos. Do you have a close relationship with autos? It's always been good, but I'm not sure the auto is such a good business right now. And do people just take a long term view and say, look, there are always going to be cars and I want to be part of that?
- [16:17]
Jerome Grant
Oh, absolutely. I mean there are four or five jobs for every one of our auto graduates out there on the market. And no matter what I do to build new campuses, and our plan is to build, you know, at least two new campuses a year for, for the next five years, I'm still not going to meet or even come close to meeting that demand. What we're seeing out in the auto industry is that the retailers want people with dual skills. People who can work on ice engines and people who can work on ev. And that's what we do, we train them for, for both types of technologies with a very close relationship with over 34 OEM partners out in the market.
- [16:53]
Jim Cramer
So how many states or counties in America have a universal technical institute like programs that you get for free if you live in that county?
- [17:06]
Jerome Grant
Well, many. I mean if you think about community colleges, there are over 500 community colleges that, that teach tech trade programs around the country. About half of the certificates come from community colleges around, around the country. And so being getting access to low cost or free apprenticeships, internships, things like that is there. The real challenge is that that doesn't even, you know, half of the certificates in the United States still leaves four or five open jobs for every one of our graduates. And so it's really an issue of how do we get the word out more to get the pie bigger rather than think about who you're competing with?
- [17:48]
Jim Cramer
Well, how did the Concord acquisition kind of help you in that particular note?
- [17:56]
Jerome Grant
Well, I mean, health care in terms of job opportunities is significantly larger even than the trades. And so our particular focus in dental and allied health has got great opportunities moving forward. Whether it's radiology techs, dental hygienists, things along those lines. Everybody that surrounds the doctor. Great opportunities moving forward. And again, now that our growth restrictions have been lifted through collaboration with the Department of Education, we're moving forward to begin to build new Concord campuses. And you'll hear news from us on that regard very, very soon.
- [18:33]
Jim Cramer
I want to be sure people know that it wasn't. You weren't penalized because that sounded like they were penalized. It has to do with what happens when you acquire a school. It's not like that.
- [18:42]
Jerome Grant
Absolutely.
- [18:43]
Jim Cramer
Okay, good. Because they weren't lifted because of something you did wrong. That's just the standard procedure.
- [18:48]
Jerome Grant
Oh, no, absolutely. It's a standard procedure in the acquisition world when you buy in higher education is that the Department of education would like to see that this acquisition went well and that things move forward. And it's actually a vote of confidence to be able to move those growth restrictions off earlier.
- [19:04]
Jim Cramer
Okay, one last thing for different tuition. How do you. You know? Because right now I'm going to say if I look at a Cardiovascular sonography, that's 50,000 to get for a total, you can get a good return on that. What is the best bang for the buck for people who are looking and say, you know what, I don't know if I want to go four year because I really, I want to be an English major or history is not a lot of jobs. What would be the best bang for someone who just said, look, I want to put down 31,000, I want to make 200,000.
- [19:33]
Jerome Grant
Well, that's just it is that you look at something like cardiovascular sonography or dental hygienist. The dental hygienist program tuition is up near $85,000, but your first year wages are up in the 80, $85,000 range as well. And so those are incredibly strong bang for the buck wages that you're getting in these programs.
- [19:54]
Jim Cramer
Well, look, I find this fascinating, especially in an era where I think there's a lot of people who I know you don't want to denigrate for your. Neither do I. And support four year in two different schools. But know that the possibility of someone three years in losing their job, losing their job strictly because of AI has to be taken account of. Right. And you're. You probably have students who are very worried about it.
- [20:19]
Jerome Grant
Yeah, absolutely. You know, Jim, I've been watching your show religiously. I know that you've referred to us as AI proof. We actually, we actually embrace AI, whether it's in our recruiting process, what we teach people, the AI integrated diagnostic tools in both health care and in the trades are are things we teach. But AI is not going to take your blood. No, AI is not going to fix your car. And, and you know, we're proud to be able to continue to teach.
- [20:49]
Jim Cramer
And that's exactly what I want to leave it on that. Thank you so much for terrific, terrific discourse on that. Jerome Grant is the CEO of Universal Technical Institute. Thank you.
- [21:00]
Jerome Grant
Thank you.
- [21:00]
Jim Cramer
Absolutely Mad money's back at Goodbright.
- [21:03]
CNBC Promo Voice
Coming up, Cisco's latest results are in. Could it be your chance to plug into a potential AI winner? Kramer's revealing where he stands on the stock next.
- [21:15]
Ameritrade Representative
Trading at Schwab is powered by Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills. Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos and more, all curated just for traders. Plus guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more@swop.com trading at Capella University, learning.
- [21:46]
Capella University Representative
The right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella. Edu.
- [22:07]
Jim Cramer
What'S happening at Cisco? The networking equipment and security software titan was reported last night. I've been paying close attention to this one because Cisco is the newest holding for my charitable trust. We bought it late last month and it had a quick 3% gain going into yesterday's close. Today though, we have a smaller gain. But even though the quarter wasn't perfect, I think it was a net positive, even if the stocks $10 decline might say otherwise. Before we get into the numbers, let me walk you through our thinking when we decide to endorse this one for the CBC Investing club. Not that long ago. See, for years Cisco had been trading mostly sideways, even as many other big tech stocks roared higher, including many we have for the trust. Finally, about a year ago, Cisco started rallying too after bottoming at $44.50. Since then, the stock's up 56%. Some of that's because Cisco's core networking business come roaring back for a while struggle because customers placed too many orders during the supply chain Pandemic. And then they were stuck with too much inventory. But now we're past the post Covid hangover. Some of it's because Cisco is getting credit for slow steady shift towards becoming more of a software company with lots of recurring hardware. I mean recurring revenue rather than just a hardware company. That's especially in cybersecurity. Software's got a higher margin than hardware, so it tends to get a higher price earnings multiple. And that's exactly what we've been seeing in Cisco stock. Its multiple is expanding. Most importantly though, Cisco is finally getting recognition for its AI exposure. Of course there's plenty of networking equipment in AI data centers. At the same time, their software businesses has built some compelling security offerings for the era. We've heard about these from CEO Chuck Roberts before. It's nice to find a stock with a exposure selling for just 17 times earnings. And it doesn't hurt that this company is a regular repurchaser of his own shares. Last night we learned that Cisco has $14.2 billion remaining on its buyback authorization, which works out to be about 5% of the company's current market capitalization. But how about the quarter? Last night Cisco posted a solid revenue beat, modest earnings beat. When you look at Cisco's individual businesses, the outperformance was driven by their product business. That's great. It's the biggest, specifically the core networking division. But everything else in the product business fell short of expectations. Not good. As did their service businesses. More on those in a minute. Crucially with Cisco, we closely watch the orders because that's what tells you about the future. And this time their orders were pretty darn impressive. Product orders grew 7% driven by double digit orders growth, order growth from networking division and also Cisco's remaining performance obligation. RPO, another indicator of future business came in at $43.5 billion. That's just over $1 billion ahead of expectations. Very good. That's business that they have to do. So again the numbers were solid. But when the report crossed the wire last night, the stock just got slammed. Initially falling about 5% in after hours trading for quickly recovery. Even after that rebound, Cisco finished today down about 1.5%. Was that correct? Well, let's stay tuned here for a second because I want to tell you what the sellers why they bailed. Okay? First, while Cisco reported top and bottom line beat. All right, it was a very small beat. The results were some people would say are more or less in line just with expectations. And perhaps some investors were looking for more than that. Given how much the stock had already run. I get that all. Second, some people might not have been thrilled by Cisco's basically in line guidance for the current quarter. Management gave a very robust outlook, but you see for their full year forecast, pretty much that just matched Wall Street's expectations. Think about this. The forecast I think will be proved for conservative, but we won't know for sure anytime soon. And it looks like that Cisco saying our business is going to decelerate. Third, the most legitimate concern about the Cisco quarter comes down to some of the line item misses for the parts of the business, especially from the security division, which had been an important growth driver, but it had nearly a $200 million shortfall. That said, Cisco had an explanation for the security miss. Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins explained that their security division got dosed. The weakness here mostly came from the company's federal government business, which has been impacted by budget cuts. But Robbins was still upbeat about the security division, saying that orders for some of the company's newer products grew by more than 20% in the quarter. That's very satisfying. In fact, about 2/3 of Cisco's security portfolio is growing about 20%, which is why manager believes they can still hit their long term targets here. When I spoke to Chuck Robbins on the Squawk box squawk on the street this morning, I don't know, he sounded pretty confident about security, even though a lot of sellers didn't think he should be so. Look, I'm more sanguine about the security shortfall after hearing management's explanation on last night's call and Robinson's answer during the interview this morning. In the end, I think most of the hand wringing over the lackluster parts of the quarter missed the big picture here. Instead, investors should be focused on the really strong momentum that Cisco seeing for its AI related products and services. Those are the ones we saw him put together with Jensen Huang and Nvidia when we went to the GCC conference. As Robbins pointed out this morning, a year ago the company had set a target of $1 billion in AI orders from what Cisco calls its web scale customers, meaning the major players in their 2025 fiscal year. They ultimately more than doubled that, doing over $2 billion in orders with these customers. In fact, on the conference call, Robin said that orders from four of the six hyperscalers grew triple digits. Two of these customers placed orders worth more than $1 billion across Cisco's total product portfolio in the fiscal year. That's more than $1 billion each. What else on the call, Robbins mentioned that their success in AI products comes down, at least in part to Cisco's expanding partnership with what I just mentioned in video. Something you would have known had you watched our interview with Robbins and Nvidia's Wong in GGC back in March. When prompted by an analyst question, Robbins also mentioned that Cisco has a close relationship with AMD and the two are working together on some sovereign aid deals, including the company's recently announced business from what it calls Middle east strategic partnerships. These are some of those major infrastructure investment ventures backed by the gold monikers. Finally, apart from the AI business, Cisco reiterated that it has a tailwind from a strong networking equipment refresh cycle. Enterprise customers are adopting some of the company's latest Catalyst 9000 switches, the Cat 9000, as well as routers, wireless access points and industrial Internet of things devices. So I want you to put it all together. This is what I heard from Cisco. Don't sweat the stock. Small pullback. There was a lot to like from the quarter, especially the strong orders which gives me confidence this just goes in line. Guidance will ultimately prove to be conservative. Yep, I think they were practicing upon under promise and over deliver the bottom line. When you see Cisco pulling back after what I thought was a positive quarter, my recommendation is that you do some buying, not selling because this is a great company. Great management is finally riding the air wave that I wanted so much for them to do. And hey, when the hyperscalers are building data centers all over the place, how can you not have some networking equipment exposure? Let's go to Jira in Pennsylvania.
- [29:30]
Caller
Deer hey, how are you Mr. Kramer, I'm a big fan of yours and you're a real guru teaching us investment. I had spoken to you a year ago regarding Joby and Archer and appreciate your advice. So in the same portfolio I bought a stock for my son who's 18 months old. The name of the company is ASML which makes the the only company which makes the most extreme EUV and lethal.
- [29:58]
Jim Cramer
My story was a I'm concerned about the stock. Let me tell you why because Applied Materials reported tonight and they had some very downbeat things to say. I think that's going to hit asml. I think ASML is doing incredibly well but I do think that this group is all joined at the head and ASML will go down tomorrow off of Ply Materials. Let it bottom if you want to buy more. I prefer to not be in the semiconductor capital equipment companies right now because they're too linked to China and therefore they are too Erratic. Look, I think there was a lot to like. Cisco's latest quarter. The market didn't think so, but I do. The pullback I think is the perfect opportunity. Opportunity to start a position in the company. We own it for the Travel Trust. Go listen to the call. You can do a replay of it. Might help you now much more man. Moneyheaded. I'm answering some of your most pressing questions to help make you some money in the market. Then trying to get a sense of where we stand on hiring in this country. I'm sharing where I look for answers and of course all your calls. Rapid Fire, tonight's edition of the Lighting. So stay with Kramer. Earlier today we held our investing club monthly meeting with Jeff Marks and I get together to walk club members through our decision making process for the portfolio. We discuss our current holdings and then we take questions from our club members. My favorite part of these meetings is taking questions from you. And since we never have time to take them all, we're going to give you an inside look into what happens in these monthly meetings today while also giving out some much needed market advice. And look, you know today was a very exciting day. We had a lot of stuff that was basically about after the close, about intel and about UnitedHealth. That's the kind of stuff we handle. If we've got the stock, we give it to you real time. So first up we have a question from Laurie Kentucky who wants to know when we have experienced gains in the stock but we didn't buy as many shares that we like at the outset. Is there a point where it's okay to violate your basis on the way up or do we just take our gains in the shares we have and move on to the next? We have to ask ourselves has something changed? If something has changed and it's really dramatic, then we will pay up. Jeff and I talked a bunch of times about what we should play for Home Depot or not because we didn't catch the bottom. We bought some and then it flew up and I'm a big believer that we're going to get rate cuts. We said buy some Home Depot. So I think that the thing had changed was that we knew we were going to get the rate cut from the cpi. So yes, if something changes you can violent but it has to change. It can't just because you say oh I really like that. Next up we're going to go to swap deal in New Jersey. Who asks? Hello Jim and Jeff, first and foremost I want to thank you for your hard work and making Common people like myself, good investors, everybody's common. My question about AMD stock, would the trust consider getting back into the stock if it results this month? If not, what would take to get back? We discussed this. We felt like, you know what, we missed this AMD going back move, but we put our money into, into a Broadcom and Broadcom was terrific. Now I will say this, this AMD move is extraordinary and that's because Lisa Su has caught up with some of the lower end chips of what Jensen Huang's doing in Nvidia. And this was a remarkable move. Do I wish I got it? Absolutely. I've kicked myself, I said that several times that I kick myself about it. But you know what, there's just you, you got to put that out of your head and move on. Next up, Marcus in Utah as Jim. What the heck is going on with Adobe and what do I do with this once great stock which has been almost cut in half by the pasture? All right, so I'm going to have to just. Sometimes you have to just say someone knows this better than I do. There's a fellow by the name of Ben Righteous. I was very good friends with this with his dad. I'm now friends with him. He has been coaching me into saying, listen, understand that AI is eating software. This is a software as a service company now it's when you buy them, when you buy Adobe, you get certain seeds, you bring them in. It's a very costly program. It is unbelievably good for graphics. Okay? But there's a new company called Figma that's come in and they do a lot of stuff that Adobe does for a little bit cheaper. There's Canva, which does it for incredibly cheap. So I think that what's really happened is, is that others have come into their market with a cheaper product that a lot of people feel is just as good that as artificial intelligence in it. And they can't maintain their price. So far their price has been able to be maintained, but that's the big worry about Adobe. And I have no answer for Adobe. None. I just don't. Next up, Sam in Utah asks how do you know when to sell? I'm thinking about trimming position. I'm asking about a full on exit. I believe the millennials refer to this as ghosting. I'm not a millennial. I don't know. To me Casper was like a ghost. Okay. But I also hear ghosting because I got kids now. I would tell you that if again, if the circumstances have changed, then you need and you don't like any more, blow it out. If they haven't. Why would you sell it? Why would you say I always have to tell people, why are you selling something? Because it's up a lot if it hasn't. If you've taken out your cost basis in particular, let it run, let it run. That's a novel view of mine, but that's what I believe in. Now let's go to William, Massachusetts who asked Jim and Jeff. I am very positive. Verona Vernova. We have made 45% in this year. How I need my. I need my number one club quarterback, my number one club receiver, devise me on whether to add, hold or trim. This equity is coming to 3 to 5%. This opportunity is hard to resist. No need to add, no need to trim, just own it. I can't counsel AD because it's up a great deal. And then what happens if it goes down 100 points? Won't be able to add anymore. I can't cancel trim because it's just one of the best in show companies. I even said on the call today, I said this stock was created for this moment, or at least it feels like that. This is a company that does think about what it does. It's got the biggest natural gas turbine business, it's got one of the biggest wind onshore, they got rattle offshore and it's got nuclear. Those are the trifecta. And it's got it and it's run well by Scott Strazik. Next question we have is from Steve in Tennessee who asks with the increase in IPOs, what is the discipline around investing? Should I invest at the initial offering or wait. Any advice on when to invest in IPOs? This is a case by case situation. I have never ever just said, Listen, IPOs do this, IPOs do that. It, it counts greatly. About what? About the fundamentals. Let me give you example. For Core weave, we recommended it 40 because we believed that there was so much demand. Okay, Circle. We liked it where it came public and then it went up too high. Figma we thought was way too high because it was. Adobe had bid $20 billion for it and was going to look. It was looking like a 50, 60 billion. That's not right. So what we do is we do case by case. It's so boring to do case by case. But that's okay. The people who really do well in this business recognize you have to do a lot of boring things to figure out what's right. Most people who I see on TV are Not willing to do that. I don't blame them. They maybe live in New York. It's an exciting place. They want to go to plays, they want to be with their kids. I love all those things. That's terrific. It's not what I do. Thank you all to our club members for all the great questions. I urge everyone to join the club because it is the most democratic but also the most rigorous thing that I've ever been involved with in my life, including when I worked at Goldman Sachs. M back into the break.
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CNBC Promo Voice
Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast fire lightning round.
- [37:12]
Jim Cramer
Next it is time to sh the light mountain adventure. Boom. And then the light round is over. Are you ready? Steve Detonald. Rightmore. Kim, let's go with Steve in New Jersey. Steve.
- [37:35]
Caller
Hi Jim, how's it going?
- [37:36]
Jim Cramer
It is going well, Steve, how are you?
- [37:39]
Caller
Good, good. Today I'm calling about a company that manufactures connecting components used in AI and data centers, just to name a few. They pay us $0.71 a share dividend forward PE of 24.36 the LCP earnings and revenue last quarter. Jim, what's your opinion of TE connectivity?
- [38:00]
Jim Cramer
I think Activity is an excellent company. I do like the Internet of things. I think it's even doing better than analog devices, tell you the truth. Let's go to Jim in Pennsylvania. Jim. Hey Jim, thanks for taking my call. You're quite welcome. What's happening? A bit mine. Is it still a buy? I know it's up but is it still by which one? Oh, bit mine. Okay. My colleague David Faber did a very long piece about what's the real value of this thing in terms of the amount of shares outstanding. And all I can tell you is you don't want to touch it. Let's go to Sarah in South Carolina. Sarah. Hi Jim, it's Sarah and I'm asking.
- [38:43]
Caller
About the stock ticker Bull Webull.
- [38:48]
It's not working.
- [38:49]
Jim Cramer
We're going to stick with if we want to be in that game, we're going to be in Coinbase or Yes, we'll be in Bullish. If you want to be there. I'm not going to fight it. Let's go to Christine in California. Christine.
- [39:00]
Caller
Hey Jim, it's Christine. How are you?
- [39:02]
Jim Cramer
Yes, Christine, I am good. How are you doing? Good, good.
- [39:06]
Caller
I'm a first time caller and I just want to say I approach appreciate your show. I love your show and all your insight. So thank you.
- [39:12]
Jim Cramer
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You work hard here. The team works hard. Thank you.
- [39:17]
Caller
I know they do. I can tell. I can tell. And I enjoy speaking with all of them. So thank you for professionalism. You do have a great team. But let's get down to the business here. I purchased the stock over a year ago at around 1 133. Since then the stock has declined significantly. So in an effort to manage all my losses, I've been averaging down. My question to you is what is your outlook on the stock moving forward? And if you were in my position, what would your strategy be? The stock is Strepta Therapeutic.
- [39:56]
Jim Cramer
God, I was hoping it's not Serapta. I don't have a positive outlook on Sarepta. I think they, they kind of were. I don't want to call them a trip because what they're doing is so important. But I don't think that they have the horses to become more than what they've already become. So I think that if it goes up, you got to do some selling. I'm very sorry. Let's go to Jonathan in New Jersey, please. Jonathan.
- [40:21]
Caller
Booyah. Jim, how you doing?
- [40:23]
Jim Cramer
I am doing well. How about you, Jonathan?
- [40:26]
Caller
Great. Love your show and your energy. I'm an investor in my mid-30s. I'm hopefully my first call of many. This one's on a bit of a run and with all of the defense spending going on, especially globally, I'd like your opinion for its future. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions.
- [40:42]
Jim Cramer
Well that's a drone company. Drone companies are very. Look, I like avav but Kratos, that one's a good company too. But I'm going to stick with my AVAV and that. Ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning round.
- [40:57]
CNBC Promo Voice
The lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up hot PPI has the Fed in focus but Kramers looking past the headlines and zeroing in on the inflation clue investors may have missed. Next tomorrow kick off the trading day with Squawk on the street Live from post nine at the nyse.
- [41:27]
Jim Cramer
A lot of guys wanted to come on and they've traded it like whamma jamas. They believe in the Reagan theory. Now I'm not talking about Reagan the great president. I'm talking about Reagan who head spun and spewed green vomit. Yes, different Reagan for sure different Reagan.
- [41:42]
CNBC Promo Voice
It all starts at 9am Eastern.
- [41:53]
Jim Cramer
We can focus on these top down numbers from the Labor Department. This time a way too hot producer price index and before that a cooler consumer price index. Or we can look at the boots on the ground stories from individual companies. The anecdotal side suggests that there have been some layoffs. 25,000 Intel, 15,000 Microsoft, but nothing else that comes close. Now, Intel's problems are well documented or they actually may be able to solve them. If the government does take a stake in the company, that would be terrific. You know why? Because its balance sheet is really in tatters. Intel needs the money, the government has it. It would be fabulous. And I think Microsoft's been upfront. There are others that will be turned out to be sizable too. Even though today's producer price index number was way too high. Wage inflation is the real battleground. And I think the battle is being won by the machines. For example, this morning spoke to Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, Amazon, Squawk on the street and he spent a great deal of time talking about a word that was agentix. A G E N T I C S. Get used to that word. For many CEOs, Agentix is a code word for we can do it without humans. Because humans are costly. They get sick, they need health care, and then they quit. Here's how I see it. Companies are stalling when it comes to hiring because people are expensive. If you even if even cost money to fire people, there's nothing you can do about it. Meanwhile, it's easy to digitize and it can save you a fortune. So why not wait to see what else can be identic? One of the hotter areas of BPI was the warehouse. I found that anecdotally to be hard to believe. Right now, FedEx has a gigantic warehouse that employs only a handful of people. It's just filled with robots. Amazon's got gigantic people free warehouses that have brought the price of delivery down dramatically. It's all part of their considered effort to consistently offer same day delivery for groceries, something they plan to offer in 23 cities by the end of this year. Given that you can get same day delivery from free for free with Amazon prime, but you have to wonder, what does that mean for Doordash or Instacart? Could there be layoffs there? Oh, and what does it mean for Kroger? Or for the small food selections at the drugstore or at the troubled food offerings at Target? It's one thing to skip the trip to Walgreens by getting your shaving cream or toothpaste from Amazon. But food? How can you possibly not order from Amazon if you're a Target food shopper? Don't forget you're buying food from Whole Foods. I think this is the stuff of inflation, not Trucking prices, not diesel. Two of the biggest outliers to the upside in this morning's report that are going to reverse anyway and that inflation is going to go down. Meanwhile, layoffs will be coming very soon to host the banks, which is one of the reasons why they're so hot. Capital One won't need all the money. All those people who work at Discover, they now have two credit card companies under one roof. Some of the compliance people at Wells Fargo will need new jobs now. The regulatory noose is loosening. Mergers have always been a major source of layoffs and we've already seen way more deals this year than last year. Actually it's going to be the last four years because the Biden year is de facto ban on M and A activity is now over. However, going forward, I think the biggest contributor to wage deflation would be from law firms, accounting firms and advertising firms. These organizations are hesitant to fire tons of people at the moment, but they are also reluctant to hire as many people. They don't want to hire that many people because they know is coming for the jobs. Now some of these numbers are closely guarded. I only know law from a senior partner who oversees hiring and is constantly checking out the competition to find out the scoop of what's happening in the industry. Yes, it's slowing, but what they're really watching is how many third and fourth year associates can be laid off. Once the partners get used to seeing the gains I may have to offer them. One of the reasons I want the monthly non farm payroll tabulations in private tech hands is that it seems like there are plenty of tech companies that can model hiring and layoffs much better than just calling around, which is very 1960s. I bet we'd be shocked by how many people are not being hired, especially in warehouse and White collar. I understand why everyone's worried about inflation when the tariffs will likely force many companies to raise prices. But I think this is a moment of powerful wage deflation and that's what will ultimately matter. It's not obvious yet, it soon will be. Don't wait for the figures. Just accept that wage deflation is a given and it won't be long before we all see the shocking results. I like to say there's always more market somewhere. I promise. I find just for you, right here. Made money. I'm your favorite. See you tomorrow.
- [46:25]
Podcast Disclaimer Voice
All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of cnbc, NBC Universal, 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 trading@schwab is powered.
- [47:05]
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