Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 02/05/25
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Meet Venu on the NYSE American, symbol V-E-N-U, disrupting a multi-billion dollar live music industry. Venu owns and operates upscale music venues, outdoor amphitheaters with seven revenue sources, $166 million in assets, luxury suite sales of $77 million in 2024,

$200 million expected in 2025. 56% year-over-year growth. Venue on the NYSE American. V-E-N-U. Fly Stone became an icon. A Hulu original from Questlove.

Sly and the Family Stone. It can't be overstated how popular they were. Variety calls Sly Lives the definitive funk-pop documentary. We opened a portal. I come this way. Generations have been influenced by Sly. RogerEbert.com raves. It's a sonic kick to the soul. If you've been on this high life and you stop, where's that energy go? Sly Lives, a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius, premieres February 13th, streaming on Hulu. My mission is simple. To make you money.

I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bull market somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. My friends, I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to educate, but also to entertain you. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me, Jim Kramer.

This market has the memory of a mayfly. That creates a ton of opportunities. So today, when the Dow gained 317 points, S&P advanced 0.39%, and NASDAQ climbed 0.19% after, by the way, looking truly awful this morning. What? To help you find them. Time and again, I've seen growth stocks just get pummeled.

That's some little bitty bit of bad news. There's some downgrade, some niggling nonsense, about a quarter with less hair on it than I have. And the punishment doesn't fit the crime, if there's even a crime at all.

This morning, for instance, Disney reported it was a terrific quarter. Theme parks much better than expected. Movies fantastic. TV and sports real positive. But there was this one line involving Disney's streaming property. When it raised prices, there was some churn and subscribers dropped by 1%. Oh, no, the genius traders said to themselves. Netflix had no churn when it raised prices, so let's bury this stock. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.

These wise men and women sold Disney down into oblivion, not thinking about two things. One, Netflix is a beast of best of best without compare. And two, Netflix doesn't have parks or cruise ships or even a fraction of Disney's intellectual property. I bet that in a few weeks, people will forget why they sold Disney stock down and the stock, it will be higher.

Same thing with Uber. You see, Uber won the war of pick up and deliver. The numbers reported this morning were extraordinary. But the experts found a line or two they didn't like. Next thing you know, they kick it to the curb and you get an opportunity to buy some at a discount. I am confident about this one after interviewing CEO Derek Osirisari this very morning on Squawk on the Street. I'll give you a little more on Uber's pops later, but I think this is a good one.

Now, we see this pattern constantly. Tesla will sell off over something. I don't know, maybe it's German numbers, it's California numbers, it's China business. I heard today that people have stopped buying Teslas because Musk turned out to be a Trumpist.

I say, so what? He's going to solve the self-driving conundrum. Of course, Tesla always has some acolyte-loving person who comes on our air and blesses it and says it's worth $1,000 and it's off to the races again. And that will happen. That will happen. Now, here's an easy one. Spotify. This is a subscription business like Netflix that keeps on growing and growing and growing. It's the ultimate beat-and-raise stock. But there's always someone down there giving them the business. I saw today when an outfit said Spotify's run too far and it's peaking. To which I say, based on what?

I didn't see a thing in the piece that was convincing, but the stock still got knocked down in the morning. It gave you a great entry point before it rallied and ended the day in positive territory. And we saw this with Abbott Labs, ABT, not that long ago, when it lost a lawsuit involving a special infant formula that some agreed parents thought harmed their baby.

The formula was made by Abbott because women sometimes just can't produce enough milk. Abbott only made $9 million a year on it. I think that they actually own this formula. I think they do it at the behest of the government or they're just out of literally out of their hearts. But it doesn't matter. They lost a $500 million lawsuit. $500 million.

And now I told you to dismiss it, not worried about it. Sure enough, what happened? Abbott stock is now up more than 30 points from that event. I've seen this happen endlessly with the American Express, the AXP, too. It'll creep up and the fact that the millennials and the gem whatever's love it. And then it reports on a sleepy Friday, which reports on Friday. And everyone runs from it like it's got the bubonic plague. But two weeks later, American Express is up from where it was before the quarter. And people have forgotten why they sold it.

Same deal with Marriott, growth hotelier. It heads down after reports then soars when people realize it is the best hotel chain out there. I even see this with Costco and Walmart, the two best retailers in America. When Costco reports, people tend to be repelled by the quarter. It could lose 100 points, only to start the track higher again, as there was no reason to sell the stock in the first place. Someone will always find fault with Walmart or say it's run too much, and they'll sell it down. A week later, another analyst will remind us of the buying opportunity that it is and will jump at the chance they both hit all-time highs.

today. Finally, it's cybersecurity. Just over six months ago, a glitch caused by a car outstrike seemed to stall the whole world. Then the CEO, George Kurtz, truly an indefatigable gent, visits 130 companies in 100 days for a genuine apology tour

And all's forgotten and forgiven. In response, the stock quickly takes out its old high. Can you believe this? Cloudflare and Palo Alto Networks, they're comeback kids, too. Every time. Oh, and let's not forget the ontologists at Palantir. Those guys can do no wrong, especially in the eyes of their buddy-buddy investors. Now, if you buy these every time they get hit, you'll do well because they shouldn't be hit in the first place.

So you're probably saying, can it really be that easy? I mean, why aren't I a millionaire? Well, I'll tell you why. Because there are landmines, real landmines in the Elbrick Grove, times when the dips are merely the beginning. So I'm going to spell those out for you, too.

First, you have to ask, is it dependent upon China in any way, shape or form? That's been the kiss of death for a really good casino company, Wynn Resorts, and for Estee Lauder, the mess of a cosmetics company. The one sharp people, sharp as attack people, actually, Danaher, who've lost their way and don't even know it, have been bashed by China. Oh, let's not forget how well Merck

could be doing if the Chinese government didn't slow play the rollout of the Gardasil vaccine for no particular reason other than forget it, Jake, it's China. And as China, I mean, honestly, what the heck happened there? We're worried about Apple now, which has to be one of the largest employers in the entire People's Republic. The Chinese Communist Party is now going after Apple for the service stream almost as hard as the U.S. Justice Department did under Biden. Oh, and anything chemicals. Those need Chinese orders desperately.

Second, can the GOP just one drug stop the craving for the product? Hershey bars, donuts, Caymus, all the Johnny Walkers, Jack Daniels, Casamigos, Oreos, Twinkies, Lay's Potatoes, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops. If it tastes good, the stocks of these creators, ow. Third, department stores of any kind. Doesn't matter. Kohl's, oh boy, try saving that one. Macy's, no thank you, although I sure wish it weren't so. Let's expand it. Does it sell in department stores? Capri, PVH, Tapestry, sold to you. Sell, sell, sell.

Nothing's foolproof. I wanted to put Nvidia on the always right story, but what if Amazon says tomorrow that it's developed its own chip to lessen its dependence on Nvidia after the deep-seek scare? I thought Ferrari might work, but that thing's gotten way too high. In the end, it is a car company. Verda fit the bill because of its data center affiliation, but that's become a battleground, too.

We don't need no stinking battlegrounds. Bottom line, always remember that there are indeed Teflon stocks in any market. The key, don't buy them unless and until they get knocked down. And then remember, they'll get up again. You're never going to keep them down. I need to go to Chuck in North Carolina. Chuck! Booyah, Jim. Booyah, Chuck.

Thanks for taking my call. With the recent market volatility, I'm looking to add a stock with a sustainable dividend. And if not this one, maybe you could recommend another. But I'd like to have an opinion on adding CVX Chevron to my portfolio. Yeah, that's a great one. I'll tell you why. Mike Wirth is just the CEO. He's committed to that dividend like no other. They've got giant cash flow. It is not a problem. It's one of the safest dividends I know. I bless that investment. Sharon in Minnesota. Sharon.

Hey, Jim. I hope your family's doing well. Absolutely good.

That's great. The question I have is about Salesforce. It's going to report soon. It's almost close to its high, and I'm wondering whether it's a good time to buy now or to wait until after. I actually think it's okay. There was a really terrific piece out by Morgan Stanley yesterday about what the clients are doing and how great agent force has been for them. It's such a winner that I smiled. I said, oh, my God, Mark Benioff is going to do so well. I think you stay in the stock, and if it gets hit, I would buy more. That's how much I believe in their agent force. It's terrific, and thank you for the call.

How about Lonzi in my home state of New Jersey? Lonzi. Hey, how you doing, Mr. Kramer? First time caller. Excellent. Been following you since my financial class back in 97. Oh, my God. I've really been around. Wow. Let's go to work. Hey, man. Just wanted to know what's your thoughts on Marriott, and are they the top dog when it comes to lodging and hotels? They are.

And I don't even mind that the stock is three points off its high. You buy some and then you let it go down. It is at 30 times earnings. That is a high multiple for Marriott. But the travel thesis is so strong. You don't know when you're going to get in, but you buy some. You don't buy all of it right now. You buy some. That's the prudent way to do it.

All right, listen to me, people. Nothing's foolproof, but some stocks are more tough fun than others. The key is to buy them when they're down because they won't stay down for long. On Mad Money tonight, Applebit is down 7% after crossing the table last night. I'm eyeing the Texas Giant CapEx commitment and how it could affect the stock moving forward.

What's the road ahead for Uber? I'm getting a read on the ride-sharing company after the stock slid on the report. And later, I'm checking in with the CEO of Columbia Sportswear to hear if today's post-Earnest dip could be a chance to buy in a turnaround story. So stay with Kramer. Flystone became an icon. A Hulu original from Questlove.

Sly and the Family Stone. It can't be overstated how popular they were. Variety calls Sly Lives the definitive funk-pop documentary. We opened a portal. I come this way. Generations have been influenced by Sly. RogerEbert.com raves. It's a sonic kick to the soul. If you've been on this high life and you stop, where's that energy go? Sly Lives, a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius, premieres February 13th, streaming on Hulu.

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Last night, Alphabet, parent company of Google, reported a seemingly disappointing quarter. And the stock just got slammed today down seven percent. That's the headline. But when you dig down to the details, what really freaked people out?

is that they're planning to sell at $75 billion in capital expenditures this year. Yep, they're being punished for investing heavily in growth, which is a big change from last year. Of course, that's not the only reason the stock got hit. First, keep in mind that Alphabet's stock had run up nearly 25% from the end of September through yesterday's close. It was really charmed. This is making it the third best performer in the MAGD7. So the expectations were certainly not low.

But then Alpert reported the quarter was mixed, to say the least, with slightly weaker than expected revenue and a marked deceleration in growth, even as they also delivered a two-cent earnings beat thanks to better cost control. No one really cared about that, though.

Their core advertising business is still doing great, both search and YouTube. Wow, YouTube was great. Outperformed expectations. The top-lining shortfall from its Google subscriptions, Google Cloud, and the company's catch-all other bets segment? Eh. The Google Cloud weakness was particularly surprising. In the previous quarter, this business put up great numbers, but its growth rate slowed substantially in the fourth quarter.

Now, that was a key pillar of the bull thesis, and it's been kicked over. It needs to return to Tory growth now to make up for all the data spend that's been going on. In the earnings statement, CEO Sundar Pichai boasted about authoritative

about all the things that are going right, search, AI, YouTube, then they went on to drop that $75 billion bomb. While this company doesn't give much in the way of formal guidance, they mentioned that they expect revenue headwinds in the current quarter, thanks to currency fluctuations, as well as some tough comparisons for Google services and uneven revenue growth for Google Cloud. But it really seems like it was the $75 billion in Caplex Ventures that truly freaked people out.

Looking at the action today, Wall Street sure didn't like that, never did it. Yep, Alphabet got hit because it's investing too heavily in growth. And that represents a huge change from what we've been seeing very lately.

Now, that $75 billion, it's CapEx. It's a commitment. It represents a big step up. And this was what was really important. From the $52.5 billion they spent last year, a lot of people were hoping that was going to be the ceiling, and the $30-odd billion that they spent in 2022 and 2023. Now, much of that money is going toward AI infrastructure like GPUs from NVIDIA and custom accelerators from Broadcom. Hence why those two stocks rallied big today. But we've been seeing major CapEx commitments from many of the other tech titans in recent weeks and to date.

The market laughed it, laughed it up. Microsoft kicked things off the first few days of January by announcing $80 billion of investment in AI data centers this fiscal year. Stocks gained more than 1% that day. Microsoft was up nicely for the year until the company gave soft revenue guidance last week.

In late January, Meta Platform CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was planning for 60 to 65 billion in capital expenditures this year, mostly on AI infrastructure, Meta AI. Pretty good. And then the stock jumped 2% that day. It's still up 20% for the year. It's terrific. Then there's the big one. The Stargate AI infrastructure venture that Oracle's Larry Ellison, SoftBank's Myosin Sun, and we...

Well, son and open AI. Sam Altman rolled out at the White House on January 21st. That was Trump's full first full day in office. They're spending one hundred billion up front and could go up to five hundred billion over the next four years. Now, some question whether these companies even have that kind of money. But, you know, who didn't care? I mean, Wall Street.

Oracle stock gained 14.4% over the next two days. And while it's since given back much of that move, clearly AI spending was not seen as a problem two weeks ago. So you can imagine you've got this one company spending far more than we thought. And then what happens? Its stock goes up. Now, something big changed in recent weeks, though, and that was the arrival of DeepSeek. That's a Chinese generative AI tool that seems to perform nearly as well as any of the leading edge expensive US AI systems.

and was allegedly developed with far less hardware, meaning a heck of a lot less money. DeepSeek was actually launched last year, but it fully broke into Wall Street and Silicon Valley's collective radar, the conscientious, about two weeks ago after the Chinese quant hedge fund that created DeepSeek released a white paper explaining how it was made on January 20th. The collective ax about DeepSeek caused a huge, nasty tech sell-off. I mean, like... Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell!

That was just last Monday. It demolished the stock of Nvidia and the market still hasn't really recovered from this development. The still unanswered question that DeepSeek has forced investors to ask is whether or not developers of AI applications still need to spend huge amounts on infrastructure in order to get the best results.

but so far the tech titans have stood by their major capital spending forecast and they haven't been punished for it simply last week both microsoft and meta formally reported reiterated these big capex budgets i mean sure microsoft sold off in its quarter but that was really because of a soft revenue number and discouraging revenue forecast metaphor reiterated its capex budget and

And the stock soared. They were reveling in it. But now Alphabet's announced its own large CapEx number for the year, one that's right in the same neighborhood as that of Meta and Microsoft. Boy, the market hated it. And that is the biggest takeaway from Alphabet's quarter. And we have to see if this is an exception or if it's the new normal. Maybe investors simply trust Meta and Microsoft to spend the money more wisely than these guys.

Doesn't seem to be the case for me, though. Now, I don't think this should be considered bad news for all of tech. In fact, you could argue it's somewhat bullish for Nvidia and other AI hardware makers, which sounds like they'll continue to get robust orders from the tech titans. Although after ARM tonight, which wasn't that great, I'm sure people say, wait a second, maybe spending is cooling. I don't think it is. We'll find out more tomorrow. These huge companies certainly don't seem to be taking DeepSeek seriously, though. That said, if the market is becoming more skeptical about these types of massive AI investments,

and even punishing companies that commit to that type of spending, as it did with Alphabet today, then maybe the hyperscalers will start dialing back their hardware investments. That would be bad for a whole lot of companies. Now, the next big event here is Amazon's report Thursday night. Now, they have not yet pulled out their, we don't know what their CapEx guidance is going to be for 2025. So we'll see what they say. And more importantly, we'll see how it's received. I doubt it can change overnight, but I do think that Alphabet has put the big time spenders on the defensive. So you know what you think.

It's a way to think about this number when you see it tomorrow night. Bottom line, though.

We've gone pretty quickly from a world where major investments in AI infrastructure are cheered, I mean, literally cheered by investors, to a less certain world where it seems that the investors don't like it and are starting to get skeptical about some of these big spending commitments. Now, that's a huge change, people. And if it continues this way, we might need to rethink our top picks in tech going forward. And you know how I feel about this. So let's watch Amazon on Thursday and go from there. Mad Money is back after the break.

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Today, Uber Technologies reported the stock just got completely slammed, finishing the day down 7.6%. That's a hideous move, especially because the rest of the market was up. But honestly, like I said at the top of the show, I actually thought the quarter was good. I mean, like, really good. Now, here's a stock that, after roaring for years, started selling off last October based on worries about autonomous driving.

specifically robo taxis uber's all-time high was set on october 11th one day after tesla's big cyber cab event that event was originally considered underwhelming big on hype short of details so uber stock popped more than 10 percent the next day but that

But that was as high as it got. Less than a month later, President Trump won the election. And given all the support he got from Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the campaign, investors started taking the company's cyber cabinet ambitions much more seriously. Look, I think that was the right call. But you know what?

I vehemently disagree that it's bad for the whole rideshare industry. When Uber reported its previous results at the end of October, the stock did get hit, even though this was a beat and raise quarter. Investors nevertheless seized on an oh-so-slight miss for rideshare bookies since the stock sold off. So I was looking forward to this morning's report from Uber because I wanted to see if the company could set things straight.

Long story short, we got the solid numbers that we were looking for, but it didn't mean anything for the stock, which just got pulverized. I mean, like obliterated. What the heck happened here? Well, first, I want to reiterate that Uber gave us very strong overall numbers. Gross bookings grew 18% year over year, substantially higher than expected. Revenue was up 20%, also higher than expected. The cash flow results were excellent. Net cash provided by operating activities grew by 130%, way ahead of expectations. Free cash flow up

122%, also a huge beat. Other operating metrics like monthly active platform customers and total trips exceeded expectations, too. The worst thing you could say about the results is that the earnings for interest taxes appreciation and conversation, that is a key probability metric here. We're merely in line. Okay.

Uber's two main businesses, Mobility and Delivery, meaning ride sharing and Uber Eats, both beat expectations for gross bookings. Uber's smaller segment freight did have a gross bookings miss, but it doesn't matter. Uber also provided some guidance for the first quarter of 2025, and I call their outlook for the current period in line with expectations, though perhaps a bit short of Wall Street's elevated top line expectations.

The company expects gross bookings to grow 17 to 21 percent year over year, which was below the consensus estimate, the midpoint. Importantly, though, Uber said it expects a huge 5.5 percent currency headwind. That's not their fault. Uber also expects adjusted EBITDA to grow by 30 to 37 percent year over year. That's in line with expectations. I think it's pretty super.

Now, to be clear, there were some small issues with the quarter. I mentioned the freight gross bookings miss and the slightly lower than expected gross bookings guidance for the current quarter, even as the latter can be explained away because of those currency fluctuations I just mentioned.

There was also some noise with the company's operating income result. Like I said, adjusted EBITDA is really the key measure of profitability for Uber. It's what they guide for and it's what the analysts care about. But the company's operating income result of $770 million was meaningfully below the $1.19 billion number that Wall Street was looking for. And some pointed to that as a reason for the negative response to the quarter. But wait, wait a second. I'm not buying that.

Uber's operating income only came up short thanks to a $462 million expense for legal, tax, regulatory reserve changes and settlements. It's a one-time item. It does check out as the reason for the disparity. Again, there was some hair in the quarter, but was enough hair to justify the stock's 7.6% decline today?

In a midday reaction note to the Uber quarter, Mellius Research Analyst Connor Cunningham said the following, quote, The issue facing Uber is the earnings beats revisions are less intense now and the bear case around autonomous vehicles can't be disproven quickly.

Basically, the magnitude of Uber's beats for key metrics like gross bookings and EBITDA are declining. And that big, scary long-term threat of autonomous competition looms. I think that's exactly what's holding the stock back. But I'm just not convinced that the robo-taxi competition is a serious problem for Uber right now or even in the near-term future.

See, this morning I got to speak with Uber CEO Derek Crosasari on Squawk on the street. He was right there with me, and there was a lengthy discussion about how the company's thinking about the autonomous vehicle threat. As he explained it, this is less of an existential threat to Uber, more of an opportunity. Putting aside all the obstacles to self-driving cars, once people are finally building them at scale, how are they supposed to make money as taxis? Well,

Keep in mind, Uber crushed all the old car services. So once these things exist, the people who buy them will want to partner with a ride share app.

When customers already was asked if the introduction of Waymo into the San Francisco market has resulted in a meaningful market share loss, no, still too small a matter. In fact, Uber's ride share business accelerated in San Francisco in the fourth quarter. More importantly, Uber and Waymo are going to be partners in some new markets like Austin and Atlanta. And by the way, Uber's been partners with Waymo for a while in Phoenix, enabling tens of thousands of rides there. No reason they need to compete against self-driving cars.

Now, there was something else that the man universally known as Dara said during the interview that I think is important.

A couple of times he emphasized Uber's excellent free cash flow results over the past few years, including the record $6.9 billion result for 2024, which was up 105% for the previous year. At the end of the interview, when I expressed some dismay about the fact that the stock was down, Darragh said, quote, you know, while the stock is cheap, we get to buy it back. And that is not a bad thing. He's right. Around this time last year, Uber announced its first buyback, a massive $7 billion authorization. And what?

We knew from this morning's report that they only ended up spending one point two five billion of that last year through the last month. Uber also announced that it completed a one point five billion dollar accelerated buyback. But some quick math tells you that the company has plenty of money left on that program. And it sure sounds like Uber's ready to put that cash to work. I like that. So here's the bottom line.

Today's quarter was not the current event that I had hoped it would be for Uber, but I'm still not ready to give up on this terrific stock. I think Wall Street's way too worked up about the threat of self-driving, which might not even be a threat at all. And this stock's worth buying into the weakness. Eric in Michigan. Eric.

Jim, I love the show. I'm a longtime listener and I'm a club member. Thank you, Eric. Thank you very much. Thank you. How can I help you? I'm calling on General Motors today. I'm a longtime shareholder. I love the company. I love the products. I know about the tariffs.

And I love the share buyback. What do I do with this stock right now? You own the stock. And Mary Barrett is better than the four times earnings P.E. that you're getting there. I think that's reflecting every bit of the bad and not a lot of the good. Keep in mind, Ford disappointed again tonight. That could move GM stock down. I would be a buyer. Nicholas in California. Nicholas.

What's up, Jim? This is Nicholas live from East Palo Alto, California. First off, I want to say thank you for initiating the buy in Goldman Sachs. My question today is about CrowdStrike. I recently trimmed half my position in Palo Alto Networks, been in it for a couple years, and used that profit to get into CrowdStrike. But I'm wondering, because Palo Alto Networks has been in the doghouse for

Oh, Palo Alto's going to be fine. Yeah, there's three analysts who downgrade it. Now, Nikesh Arora, believe me, he's the CEO. He will, I tell you, he's going to confound those analysts. There's no way that guy is going to take sitting down the three different guys who took it to a settle. That's strange. How about this crowd strength? I mean, it burst out today. It's now past where it was when they had that outage. And I say George Kurtz is the real deal. I want to go all the way down to James in Texas. James.

Yes. Yes.

I don't like to go against Dan. I think he's terrific, but I think the stock is a little elevated. How about that? Dan, don't get mad at me. You know I love your pink and your green jackets, although I wear Brioni. All right. Look, I'm not ready to give up on Uber. I think, if anything, it's worth buying into wheat this year. Now, much more money ahead. I'm hearing how the latest tariff headlines could affect apparel and footwear stock.

Calm, C-O-L-M, also known as Columbia Sportswear, after yesterday's earnings. Then I'm laying out a packaged goods playbook that you're really going to like. PepsiCo, Clorox, they've been going more. What the heck's going on? All your calls. Rapid Fire tonight's edition of the Lightning Round. So stay with Kramer.

Okay, what do we make of these numbers from Columbia Sportswear, the outdoor apparel and footwear company that you know as Columbia, Sorel, Prana, and Mountain Hardware Brands? Last night, these guys reported a seemingly mixed quarter with slightly higher than expected sales, but a 9-cent earnings miss off a $1.89 basis. Full-year forecasts and their guidance for the current quarter also came in light, and that's why the stock got clobbered today, down almost 6%.

However, Columbia looks like it's going to return to sales growth this year. So if they deliver, this could be a turnaround story. It's a stock that just got quite a bit cheaper. It's got a fantastic fortress balance sheet. Let's take a closer look with Tim Boyle. He's the chairman and president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear. Get a better read on the quarter and what comes next. Mr. Boyle, welcome back to Mad Money.

Thanks, Jim. Great to be here with you. Oh, thank you, Tim. Now, I'm going to just quote from what you said about yourself, because I think it's important because you're a man of great integrity. You said, while we made progress in many areas, our 2024 financial performance was short of my personal growth and profitability goals. Can you tell us what would have been something that would have made you happy and not feel like this?

Well, frankly, for me, we've historically been in the high teens, both in the growth area and in operating margins. And frankly, when we're below that, my personal goals are not met. So we have to be a little bit more circumspect about the fact that at those lofty times, we were a smaller company. It's a bigger time now.

But frankly, when we're not operating at a high level in the upper quartile of our competitors, that's a problem for me, especially when you think about the company's balance sheet. It's an embarrassment to me to be talking about an anemic growth pattern when we've got over $800 million in cash, and we should be doing better.

So if we think about historically, when we've underperformed in an area, let's call China and Europe underperforming areas from a historical perspective, and we've worked diligently on those areas, we've seen growth. And frankly, we need to be putting the same sort of rigor around our North America business, which

at the end of the day, is the one remaining geography where we aren't performing as high as we need to. And so we've bundled a number of issues and strategies together in what we call accelerate

And we're just going to be spending an incredible amount of time and effort on our North American business to get us back to growth. Well, Tim, what gives me hope here is that I'm a big retail guy with my parents from retail. And all I ever think about with drumming in my head was inventory. Inventory is the bane of your existence. Excess inventory. It looks like to me that that is not your problem.

No, we've been working diligently to work our inventories down, which got bloated during COVID. And frankly, we spent arguably too much time because we concentrated on profitably liquidating those inventories, which had a dampening effect on the whole business. But we were able to successfully move the inventories down. We again had a down quarter in terms of our inventory perspective in Q4.

And we think we can operate the business even with less inventories than we ended with

at the end of the year. It's going to require diligence, and we're capable of doing that, fully capable, but it has to be a focus, and that's where we're going to be spending our time and effort, accelerating the business and lowering the inventories. Right. Now, you mentioned brick and mortar, but you also mentioned that you had these, I guess, almost like pop-up stores. I'm not sure to get rid of the inventory, but brick and mortar in high-traffic areas. What is a high-traffic area for Columbia Sportswear?

Well, I would say in some of the best malls in the United States and in Canada, where there's very high traffic, where we could have eight or nine million people in a particular mall, and we get great positioning. And that's going to be part and parcel, really, of our marketing efforts, because we expect that those kinds of traffic figures will allow us to show off something

some of our technologies, which are complex and require an explanation, and also our footwear business, which we believe we have very high-quality footwear and great products with great technologies, but it's tough to get adopted in the kind of way we would like it at our wholesale partners. It's easy to say that. I've got your footwear on.

And it's very warm on really, really cold days, but doesn't look like they're not cloudy. But I had to learn about it. I mean, you know, you can't, you know, I had to learn about it because of the show. I wouldn't just buy it without learning about it. That's kind of a problem. I agree. In fact, you're not the only one who's been critical of our efforts and marketing. So that's part and parcel of what we will do. We'll have these stores, which we'll have them open.

a minimal impact on the population. Where we're gonna be spending more time and frankly more money will be in our dot-com business and marketing efforts, as well as talking about with TV ads and a larger, more mass media budget. - Oh, terrific. - Yeah, it's gonna be important and we need to be thinking bigger about how we talk about our products. - I totally agree. Now you are a bit of an anomaly.

your business in China is very strong and your business in North America isn't that strong. Plus, you're one of the most outspoken people about tariffs, where you recognize that tariffs are not a way necessarily to do business. Now, since you straddle both countries and since you're doing very well in China, again, an anomaly, why don't you give us a view of why, one, that you're doing well there, and two, about how it doesn't help if you tariff them?

Well, as you know, tariffs are designed to raise the price of imported products. And so Columbia is one of the largest duty payers in the United States. And the reason that's true is that we are in a commodity, but we're in apparel, that's very highly tariffed already. Call it in the mid-teens era.

area in terms of import duties. But some of our products carry 37.5% duty. So they're very high. It's a dampening effect. But more importantly, we need some surety about what is going to happen. What's the future? We import very little into the US from China. China is an important part of our business where we produce products

in China for distribution in China and distribution in other parts of the world. But we have to be incredibly cautious, in my opinion, about how we go forward because we don't know where these tariffs are going to appear and, frankly, how much they're going to be. And it doesn't seem like that it's going to bring back the seamstress business, the textile business. Those are long gone. We're not going to restart, right, Tim?

No, in fact, it's interesting. When we have a factory in Asia, forget the particular jurisdiction, but if we have a factory in Asia making either footwear or apparel, and an electronics factory opens up next door, everybody rushes away from the textile products into the digital

It's just a more highly sought after environment. So, yeah, it's a challenge and it's one that we're frankly very good at navigating. But, you know, we need some surety about what's going to happen so we can plan. Well, I sure wish people would talk to you because they would understand better than anyone because you actually understand.

have lived it and breathed it. I want to thank Tim Boyle, chairman and president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear. You heard that the inventories are down. You heard they're going to do campaigns. The stock is down a lot. A fortress balance sheet. I think this stock is very interesting here. Thank you so much, Tim. Thanks, Jim. Great talking to you. We'll be right back.

And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? It's getting dark. It's time for the lightning round. I'm going to start with Ben in Florida. Ben. Mr. Creamer, you got your spikes packed in case Kelly Moore calls you in? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. And by the way, happy early birthday, buddy. Thank you. Thank you.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you. What's up? I just try to invest. I don't trade, really. I'm betting on my kids' inheritance. And so I'm coming to my sensei for some advice. I have a moderate position in stock that recently beat earnings, revenues, EPS was in line, looking good in 25, about 11.50%, versus prior year, stuff like that.

Unfortunately, it's in a dicey spot in the evolving D.C. policies. Okay. But I think that CART needs a wingman, so I'm flying with BAH. What do you think? I think that there are a lot of people fleeing this stock because of Doge, and I think that they think that this is somehow going to be

front and center of the problem. I don't think that's the case. I think it's going to be the big military contractors that they're really going to go after. I'm with you on this one. Let's go to Ty in Arizona. Ty. Professor Kramer, how are you? I am. Professor's fine. How about you? Doing good. I'm at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I wanted to give a big...

Booyah birthday shout out to my beautiful girlfriend, Amara. I love you very much. Good for you. And that is some tourney that you're out there with. I know we got to get there one day. We have to. It's beautiful. You got to come out, Kramer. We'd love to have you. Thank you. Last week, you spoke about two companies I really like, Marvell and RH, insider buying. Recently, I noticed some insider buying on a stock that I like. I want to get your opinion. Stock ticker symbol M-A-N-H.

That stock got clubbed. I mean, they really crushed it. If there's insider buying in that, we're going to do some homework and find out because, wow, I cannot believe how much that thing went down. Ugly. Let's go to Trey in Minnesota. Trey. Hey, Jim. Thanks for taking my call and best of luck to your Eagles this Sunday. Thank you very much.

So you put this name on my radar a few weeks ago, and then later that day in Davos, Trump had mentioned the need for coal to power AI data centers in our country. With the new China tariffs on coal, this company operates 100% in the U.S. The stock has a 10% dividend yield. The stock I'm asking about is ARLP.

It's intriguing to me because I think the president doesn't believe in traditional global warming. If that's the case, then he must really like coal. I'm not a big fan of coal, but that has to do more because I believe in the science. But therefore, I think if he, I'm not in charge, he is. I would buy the stock. Let's go to Kyle in Wisconsin. Kyle. Booyah, Jim. I'm a jet fan since birth, but I'm flying right beside you in the Eagles so you can beat those people. Oh, I appreciate that. You're a very good man. I appreciate that. Thank you. What's up?

Well, Jim, I'm a huge fan of the show, a viewer since I was 12, and a first-time caller. All right, good to have you on. Jim, my sock is up...

Jim, my stock's up over 130% over the past year, but it's reeled back in recent months. Kramer, is it the house of pleasure or the house of pain for Bitgear Technologies? I'm going to do this because I'm a huge believer in Bitcoin, okay? I think you should just buy Bitcoin. That's what you want to do. We don't fool around. We buy the best. We leave the raggedy others to the rest. Let's go to Alan in Virginia. Alan.

Oh, yeah. Professor Kramer. Thank you for the tenure. What's going on? I'm a very satisfied investment club member. I've just been doing my membership for a second year. I want to thank you and your team for everything you do to help us. Thank you. We've got a good team. We're trying to teach. We're trying to teach. We're all small investors. How do I help?

My question is twofold about the same stock. What's your medium or long-term prognosis? And can you please explain whether interest rates affect this stock? The stock is SoFi Technology. Okay, the reason why SoFi has moved from where it was to where it is is because it is much more of a service provider stock.

It's fintech, and it is a lender these days. But I do think it needs to digest. I would not buy at this level. Maybe put a quarter of your position on. Let it come in. It's been perched here precariously for a while. I think you can go down from here. Let's go to Nick in Maryland. Nick.

Yeah, what's up, Jim? Big fan. Calling in from Maryland. Oh, good. Hashtag MBC. So yeah, I grew up watching the show with my dad, and all I got to say is keep doing you, man. You're truly the ghost. Thank you. Thank you. So yeah, the stock I'm calling about is Redwire RDW.

Well, OK, so Redwire is part of a company. It does space work. And Professor Ben Stoto, who works with me, we both are kind of skeptical of space stuff. And I think we just have to kind of hold off. That said, we've done some work on this. And I'm not going to say that we're through. I'm looking over at the professor right now. It's not necessarily one of our favorite stocks, Redwire. I think that we're going to have to hold off. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round.

The recent decline in the consumer packaged goods stocks, I find it breathtaking. The other day, PepsiCo got crushed from weaker than expected earnings. Clorox got walloped after a quarter that was not up to snuff. Mondelēz reported a quarter that verified why the stock's been falling, though after a lower opening and dip, buyers did come in. The stock ended the day higher. That was more about the bond market, I think. Kimberly Clark gave you a pretty darn good report last week, but people still weren't happy. It goes on and on. Why is this happening?

The truth is there are a host of reasons, and every time you think that things have gotten better, they seem to have gotten worse, much worse than you've imagined. So take PepsiCo. I don't know if people realize how excellent this company really is. The stock always carried a premium price journeys multiple, meaning we're willing to pay extra for its profits. They

They have terrific brands at Pepsi. I might do a free delay, the latter being one of the most dependable of all staples. But now PepsiCo has got a problem because free delay is not delivering the consistent numbers that it used to. Why? Magnum says it's because younger generations fixate on health and there's nothing particularly healthy about potato chips or Cheetos. They'll buy smaller portions. That's what their hope is. Me. Look, I'm sure that a part of that's part of it.

But I do think that PepsiCo is in somewhat of a denial about the impact of GLP-1 weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk, which reported a terrific quarter this morning, and Eli Lilly, who reports tomorrow. I know this threat is real because these drugs eliminate your cravings for junk food, and it could ultimately be taken by 40 million people in this country alone, although that might actually be a lowball number considering that 42% of Americans, the adults, are obese.

For Mona Lisa, the problem isn't just the GOP's softening demand for its candies and biscuits. There's also the cost element, the price of a key ingredient. Cocoa is incredibly high right now. Most people thought that would be temporary, but it's held an astronomical level versus where it used to trade. Cocoa is now about four times the price that Mona Lisa has had to pay historically.

That's devastating to the margins. Plus, they can't get away with the endless raising of prices like they used to. Oh, and let's not forget about the problem of tariffs. You're getting some sudden price increases for many goods. Someone has to pay for the tariffs. These companies hope it will be you, because if it's not you, it's them. Third problem, if you're in the consumer packaged goods business, you have a hard time raising prices because when it goes up too much, you're going to get bushwhacked by an Amazon or a Costco, both of which offer really terrific private label products,

that many shoppers know that are as good as the originals. We buy Costco Kirkland brand toilet paper. We're comfortable with Amazon trash bags. We know from the former Costco CFO, Richard Galanti, that if these companies charge too much, it's easy to bring them down simply by creating a homegrown competition. The excellent Kirkland brand. Walmart has private brands under this great value name that compete in the paper goods, pantry staples and cleaning supplies. I like this stuff.

Hey, you go to Chewy for cat litter and you find Fresh, that's the Clorox brand. Then you see Frisco, the Chewy brand. And if the Clorox stuff gets too expensive, well, you might just easily go to Frisco. How much are you really going to pay up for kitty litter? Now, I know that private label's not growing all that much right now, but it's a force that keeps all prices down, including the branded ones. There were so many price increases put through during the era of COVID that the consumer's now desperate for value. And there's a reason why Walmart and Costco keep hitting new highs.

they put a ceiling on so many products, both by forcing the suppliers to keep prices down or by blitzing them with house brands that seem just as good at a lower price. I don't know what turns around the consumer packaged goods stocks. Mergers would make sense. This new antitrust department probably blessed the concentration. Maybe the companies that slash prices are the deepest ultimately win? No matter.

This moment is untenable. The stocks can't find their footing. Just too many forces against them. These used to be safety stocks, for heaven's sake. But they are safe no more. I like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I've had just for you right here on MadMoney. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, or their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or another medium.

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