We recently published an article titled Jim Cramer Discussed 9 Stocks for This Week's Game Plan.In this article, we are going to take a look at where United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UAL) stands against the other stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed this week’s events on Wall Street, which included President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and several companies’ earnings reports. Cramer touched on the broader theme of business operations, reflecting on how companies generally want the freedom to operate with minimal interference and lower taxes. He posed the question of whether that’s unreasonable, noting that it really depends on one’s perspective.
“Very unreasonable if you think big business is inherently nefarious and all these companies are run by greedy oligarchs, but if you believe in free market capitalism, letting businesses do what they want within certain limits, well that is the name of the game.”
When discussing Trump’s inauguration, Cramer highlighted that Trump seems intent on rolling back many of the regulations put in place by the Biden administration, including closing borders and taking aggressive steps against undocumented immigration. While acknowledging that not all of Trump’s plans might be realized, Cramer remarked that some of his policy changes could be enacted quickly, while others might never reach the Supreme Court. Regardless, he noted that it appears Trump is preparing for a strong push to support business interests.
“That's the only thing that can justify this market's recent rally. Now, my interactions with soon-to-be President Trump tended to revolve around the stock market, which he thinks of as the true barometer of his job performance. It's funny because Biden never cared about the stock market even though stocks did great during his administration.”
According to Cramer, Biden approached his presidency with a focus on labor and class, whereas Trump has made it clear that he intends to prioritize business and capital. He expressed little expectation that this would change in Trump’s second term, suggesting that there will be plenty of executive orders to analyze moving forward.
“Here's the bottom line: As you wrap up the Biden administration, even though I've been very critical of his approach to the business, stocks have done well. The Dow is up 41%, the S&P is up 58%, and the Nasdaq recorded 49%. Any other president would be proud of that track record. The fact that Biden seems to not be, maybe it says pretty much everything.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on January 17. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Is United Airlines (UAL) Expected To Post Impressive Earnings This Week?
A bird's eye view of a large commercial jetliner taking off from an airport runway.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UAL) is a major provider of air travel services, offering both passenger and freight transportation. Here’s what Mad Money’s host had to say about the company:
“Speaking of awesome quarters, we should get a first-class blowout from United Airlines, which is riding this incredible wave of airline profitability. When United reports after the bell, I think shareholders will be rewarded with a huge beat as the company's benefiting from a lack of planes and a lack of competition that allowed ticket prices to go ever higher. As you know, not so good for consumers or the Consumer Price Index, but tremendous for shareholders. United, one of the best performers in the S&P 500 last year was at $38 back in August. Today, it closed at $107 bucks.”
Additionally, Cramer recently expressed his amazement at the performance of United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL), calling it "simply astounding." He explained that, for the first time in his career, he witnessed a trade transform into a long-term investment. Cramer pointed out that the turning point for the airline came when it began reducing capacity, notably cutting back 3% of its promised midyear capacity. He said he was initially stunned by this move, but it ultimately played a key role in the company’s impressive stock growth. He added:
“Oh, and get this, United still sells for less than eight times this year’s earnings. It can actually power higher. It might be a good buy. I would wait for a 5 to 8% pullback.”
Overall UAL ranks 2nd on our list of the stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about. While we acknowledge the potential of UAL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than UAL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
