CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday provided investors a handful of beaten-down stocks that he believes could outperform if the artificial intelligence trade begins to cool.
“These are the stocks that will start going higher if tech retreats,” the “Mad Money” host said. “You’ll wish you had some of these when the time comes and the momentum tech stocks run out of, well, momentum.”
The comments come after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at Computex fueled fresh gains in data center and AI-related stocks. But Cramer said signs of fatigue in some software names — coupled with a looming flood of stock supply coming into the market from Alphabet and the expected mega IPOs of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI — have him considering opportunities in largely abandoned sectors.
“Tech seems full of vulnerabilities … I want to find an antidote in some other sectors where growth stocks in non-growth sectors are being thrown away,” Cramer said.
Cramer pointed to JPMorgan Chase as one potential opportunity. Financials have been the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year amid concerns about credit quality and a slowing economy, leaving JPMorgan trading at roughly 13 times forward earnings. That’s down from roughly 15 at the start of the year, according to FactSet data.
“You normally don’t get to buy this stock so cheap, and no one would regard it as a lousy franchise, even as the stock’s down 7% year-to-date,” he said.
Healthcare, which is the second worst performing sector in the S&P 500 this year, is another area Cramer believes has become excessively out of favor. While he remains positive on Eli Lilly, he said Johnson & Johnson may offer a more attractive opportunity given its drug pipeline, growing medical technology business and recent acquisitions.
“Buy this one slowly because, like the banks, there’s very little support for the stock here,” Cramer said. “We don’t know when the rotation will end.”
Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio used by the CNBC Investing Club, owns both Lilly and J&J.
He also highlighted consumer staples company Kimberly-Clark, citing its portfolio of household brands, attractive dividend yield and planned combination with Tylenol and Band-Aid parent Kenvue.
In restaurants, Cramer pointed to both McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, arguing “the love affair with tech has taken this stock down to well below where it should be.” With Yum, in particular, Cramer said reports that it’s looking to sell Pizza Hut sweetens the investment case for the Taco Bell and KFC owner.
Finally, Cramer said he’d also consider owning Kraft Heinz. He is confident in CEO Steve Cahillane’s turnaround strategy, which could help keep the stock’s dividend intact. It’s currently yielding nearly 7%.
The bottom line?
“Things could get tough in tech, because there’s some $500 billion that might need to be raised in a very short period of time for the data center buildout, and if more companies sell stock like Alphabet, it’ll put pressure on the entire group,” he said. “That’s when you’ll need something non-tech like the stocks I just mentioned.”
