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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,
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I got to tell you, we got some real strange leadership this year. When you look at the quiet winners of 2025, the ones that don't belong to the Magnificent Seven, the ones that are unsung even as they got us where we are so far this year, it's a real low-key hodgepodge. Some are from yesteryear. Others are invisible. So others go up incrementally, but you never think of them. They're the exact opposite of the giant stocks that we've gotten used to talking about every day.
So on a day when the Dow dipped 126 points, it has to be advanced 0.36%, and Nasdaq actually gained 0.51%. Why don't we take a gander at which stocks have led the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher? Because it's the biggest and most visible index stock with story companies that often don't get much airplay and very representative of what might be the new old leadership.
Well, let's start with your biggest winner so far, 3M. This once fabulous conglomerate used to have new products that either created entire markets out of nothing or beat incumbents and became leaders.
But then 3M got caught up in forever chemical lawsuits that wouldn't go away. I was appalled, by the way, at the disclosure of these because they were buried in footnotes when a former CEO retired. Then the new CEO, Mike Roman, came in. He inherited those lawsuits. They consumed his reign. He managed to settle what looks to be all the major ones and announced the spin-off of 3M's healthcare division as Solventum in 2022. Now, I actually kind of wish he hadn't done that because that was a great business.
But I was glad he took away the existential risk to this story company. Now in May of 24, Bill Brown, former CEO of L3 Harris, took over 3M. This guy's known as an incredibly tough hombre, a guy who's in a hurry to get things done. I think that the old 3M, one that my father once worked for, is back.
I await the innovations that will remind me of the halcyon days when this company used to be known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. In the meantime, Wall Street's getting reacquainted with 3M, and the market increasingly likes what it sees. I know. I got to tell you, I think it's terrific. Now, second, second, there's J.P. Morgan.
J.P. Morgan stock is way too cheap, people. At 14 times earnings. This is the premier bank of our time, for heaven's sake. J.P. Morgan has been, it's got the biggest M&A bid in IPO businesses. It's got lending. It does everything when you put it all together.
It does very, very well in a slow rate cut environment. Exactly what we have now. I think J.P. Morgan could trade up to more than 20 times earnings. Now, of course, there are other banks that have single big practices. Goldman has the biggest. Stay with me on that. But when you put them all together, it's J.P. Morgan. And to get that for 14 times earnings makes no sense in the world to me.
Next, IBM. All right, this one's a bit of a shocker. Many missed it coming. What you had to be watching were the integration of Red Hat, a powerful enterprise software platform built a few years ago, the spinoff of their old IT infrastructure business as Kindle, and the conversion of a once big hardware company into one that gets more than 40% of its business from recurring software revenues.
Those moves have transformed IBM into a company with much more consistent earnings, and Wall Street's always willing to pay up for consistency. Most investors had left this one for dead. It didn't die.
And fourth, another banker. The one I just mentioned is being great in M&A. Also, I feel as it's Goldman. Goldman is the Prometheus unbound. None of the previous presidents. Goldman's most lucrative business, M&A, went fallow, tied to a rock with an eagle eating away at sliver every day. That's Prometheus, by the way. That's it.
Kind of a Greek mythology figure. Now, the eagle here is Linda Khan. She was the former FTC chair. Now, though, traders are betting that mergers are back and Goldman will have a huge spike in business. Meanwhile, with less regulation under Trump, we're also likely to get more IPOs. That's also great for Goldman. But the stock trades at a meager 14 times earnings. That's ridiculously low, given this company is about to have its strongest moment in years. It's why we have been buying aggressively for the trust, which you can follow by becoming a member of the CNBC Investing Club.
The fact is, it's been ages since people thought of Goldman or J.P. Morgan as growth stocks. The Biden administration was not exactly a friend of the financial industry. For better or worse, they no longer have to worry incessantly about the SEC or the FTC or the Justice Department. Those days are now over, and you can see it from the strength in their stocks. That's what's propelling it.
Fifth is Amgen. And this one has so many blockbuster drugs, I think it's absurd that the stock once again sells from really 14 times earnings. The flagship drug is Repitha, which is the best medicine to lower cholesterol. They have studies showing that any amount of cholesterol is bad. So the sales just keep going higher and higher. Why isn't Amgen better known?
I think it's because people don't know about its amazing anti-cancer franchise. When the company brings its weight loss drug, Maritide, to market, I bet that people will finally sit up and take notice. In fact, many clued-in people have already spotted it, hence the recent gains. Maritide looks like it helped you lose weight as much as the majors, but unlike Ozempic or Monjaro, it only requires a once-a-month injection instead of once a week. Nobody wants more injections when they can have fewer.
Number six, Walmart. OK, well, this one isn't hidden. All right. Everyone knows them as an inflation fighter, a company with cheap, quality private label goods and a surprisingly great clothing department. My daughter outfits herself from Walmart and claims that you can see by plenty of stuff there similar to what they have on Madison Avenue. Ten times the price of Madison Avenue. Here's one that drives me crazy, though. Visa.
This stock in its doppelganger MasterCard run payment networks that take no risk and make billions. Everyone wants to buy now, pay later. That's what they want. You want to buy now, pay later outfits. And look, Affirm is up a lot tonight. It's a great company. But a lot of people, I think the big institutions want the colossus. They want the kids, the credit card companies that can do no wrong with no risk. And that are those are Visa and MasterCard.
Next up, Amazon. Now, they reported a really great number tonight with better than expected sales, up 10% year over year, monster 37 cent beat off a $1.49 basis. Top line beat was driven by the core e-commerce business with the company calling this past holiday season the best.
most successful yet for Amazon. But all three of the company's segments beat operating income expectations for the quarter. The stock's trading lower in after hours, though, in part because the company's AWS business missed revenue expectations in the quarter, mostly because the company guided very conservatively, though, for the current quarter and had a large CapEx guide for the year ahead, just like Alphabet on Tuesday. But we'll caution that the first quarter forecast includes a big headwind for the adverse foreign exchanges.
changes, which we don't think should necessarily be held against Amazon. But let's remember, I mean, even with tonight's fairly meaningful pullback, the stock's only giving up about three weeks of gains. We'll be thinking about it as a buying opportunity in a few weeks. But I will tell you, like the other mag seven, it's not where the action is. Finally, travel is the number one theme in this country. Hotels just won't quit. This morning, Hilton announced a true blowout quarter at
Expedia gave you a monster quarter this evening. It's one after another after another. But the best one's American Express. It's the ninth best performer of the year. It fits the bill for 2025 after a fabulous last quarter. Finally, a newbie added to the index, Sherwin-Williams. A little odd here, a paint company. This one's a tough—it's tough. I don't get it. It's housing slowed, 7% mortgages. I'm honestly shocked the stock's so high. Still, it's not a tech stock. It's not a MagSever. In fact, it's a quintessential not tech stock. Maybe that's why it's there.
Bottom line, so far this year, we've had many very big winners outside of tech, and I bet most of them can keep quietly working their way higher. Let's go to James in Connecticut. James. Hi, Jim. Thanks for taking my call. Of course. Jim, is it too late to buy Banco Santander?
No, Banco Santander is very inexpensive still. And it's doing a great job. Now, admittedly, I did like it of three and four. I know I just endlessly pounded the table. But at five, I still think it's a great situation. It's good. Oh, my old friend Trey in Texas. Trey.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Is Exxon the GOAT in the ONG space? No, it's not. And frankly, I'd rather see you in Chevron if you could do that. Sorry about your dog. I wish I had something for the dog. I'm trying to think. I mean, maybe Zoetis has something. I don't know. It doesn't come to mind. But no, we want to stay away from Exxon, Trey. It's just it's it's not where the action is. Let's go to David also in Texas. David.
Jimmy chill. Yo, yo. On behalf of all NFL fans that aren't KC, fly eagles fly. You bet. Go birds. What's up? All right. So my stocks have been a dog since August. Is there any hope left for Intel?
You know what? Look, Intel does have a very good CFO, now CEO, one of the two CEOs. I wouldn't bet with it and I wouldn't bet against it. I think it is a great institution, but I don't want to be in the stock. All right. Now, look, this year surprised me. Had a lot of winners outside of tech. And the one that we have in the top. Well, just Amazon disappointed tonight. But I do think the others can keep winning.
And that's where you want to be right now. On Mad Money Tonight, shares of gaming stock Roblox fell on some missed estimates and saw unexpected guidance. I'm thinking of the climb with the CEO. Then, how could rates and recent natural disasters affect the insurance landscape? I'm learning more from the Hartford's top brass. And later, Elf Beauty is on the move after earnings, but not in the right direction. Stay with Kramer.
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Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson report.
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All right. What the heck just happened to the stock of Roblox? That's the online gaming and game creation platform that's ridiculously popular with kids. After rolling higher since last spring, the stock stumbled at a down 11%. Kind of reported what I guess some people think is a mixed quarter. Although Roblox delivered a revenue beat, its bookings and daily active users fell short of expectations. And
And their guidance came in a little light. But is that really enough to justify the stock's 11% drop today? Given that Roblox was up 30% year-to-date going into the quarter, I think this one simply came in too hot. So are you getting a better entry point here, or is there more to worry about? Let's take a closer look with David Bozugi, old friend of the show, the founder and chairman and CEO of Roblox. To find out, Mr. Bozugi, welcome back to MadMoney.
Jim, thanks for having me on. It's great to be here with you. Well, I've got to tell you, you know, having looked at all the other gaming companies, the video game companies coming in, just to be sure, yours is just going much, you know, really great gangbusters versus everybody else. So I want to know when you share my view that perhaps your stock was up so much that people then sold it down.
Hey, I think, Jim, the last time we talked, we shared an ambitious vision to get 10% of all gaming content in the world running on Roblox. That's $187 billion market.
This quarter, we just showed we're well on the way to doing that. You know, revenue growth, 32 percent year on year. Exiting December bookings, 25 percent up year on year. India, which is a huge market, and Japan, which is a huge gaming market.
Both over 50% year on year, both daily active uniques as well as hours. And cash, which you and I, I think, are both fans of, in 2024, $640 million of free cash flow. That's up 5x.
as well as all kinds of great content on the platform. So we felt it was a stellar quarter. All right, so look, let's just play with the bears, what they're saying. The daily average users were up 19%. There were people who were looking to say 22%. Now, is that something we should be concerned about?
Hey, we beat every single guidance number we shared, and we beat by a big amount our cash number as well. We exited December, once again, 25% year-on-year bookings growth. There's a huge market out there. We saw NFL Universe, which is a fully licensed sports game, show up on Roblox and get in the top 25. We saw SpongeBob.
hit the top 25. We're only hitting 2.4%
of the total gaming market space on Roblox, that's a lot of room. And when we get into brand integrations, five of the top 10 grossing movies in 2024 did Roblox brand immersive experiences, including Beetlejuice and Wicked. All right. Well, those are all, Wicked was really red hot. Now I want to know, 24 hours from now, Dave, I'm going to be in New Orleans.
I understand that you too are in New Orleans in a way with the inaugural Super Bowl event. What is that going to mean? Well, I know almost every sports league is
is coming to Roblox. It's where all the people are. In addition to the NFL, we're seeing NBA and other experiences. So our NFL universe has a lot of people starting to experience that on Roblox. Side by side that, Mr. Beast came to Roblox. You know, Beast Games...
that is in real life on some various streaming platforms. The virtual version of the Beast Games is on Roblox. So it's all across not just sports, but immersive gaming as well. Could you possibly team with the President of the United States and buy TikTok?
Well, hey, I want to share one thing about Roblox that we're really interested in. Safety, civility, and transparency. Our creators on Roblox really want to know how we do search, how we do discovery. Is it fair and is it transparent? I am interested in safety, civility, and transparency across all media platforms. Okay, now let's bring that. You bring it up, so I have to go there.
Hindenburg's a tough outfit. Now, they're no longer they've dissolved. But Nate Anderson is trying to do what is right. And I know that there were things that he found. It does seem like you've taken it very seriously. You've had guardrails. You use A.I. You do everything you can to be sure that the people who are bad do not get near roadblocks in the kids. But it must be constant. You have to work against these people.
Yeah, I mean, we take everything really seriously in this domain. I've got four kids. They were on Roblox. My niece and nephew are probably playing Roblox right now. All of our, many of our employees have kids. So we take this very, very seriously. We shipped over 40 safety innovations this year. We've been using AI to,
really take our safety and civility to a higher level for the last four years. And we don't just think about under 13-year-olds. We think about every single user on our platform, voice communication, text communication, the experiences they're in. It's really our top priority. I know it is. I also, another priority you have is to help small business companies
And I think this team up with Shopify is not being talked about enough because that is a really great opportunity for people to build a business that they might otherwise dream that they could do but never be able to do it.
Yeah, take a step back. And there is a lot of fun. Jim, if you and I were to go shopping in the mall and buy clothes together, that'd be a lot of fun, right? Yeah, I like it. Well, people are starting to experiment not just with shopping by yourself, but thinking about 3D shopping with friends. We have experiences on our platform now that are making more money with Shopify.
than other forms of either freemium payments or whatever. So we think this is a huge opportunity. Have you ever talked to Mark Zuckerberg about doing that? You know, he was hoping one day to have the virtual mall be just like that. And it really hasn't happened.
It's still early. Shopify is a new experiment for us, but we really are focused on this long-term vision that immersive 3D is a new way for people to come together with safety and civility. And it's not just for gaming. It can be for shopping. It can be for learning physics at school. It can be talking to a virtual George Washington to learn history. It can be going to a concert. So even though we're shooting for 10% of the gaming content system,
We believe there's more beyond that. Well, I think people are finally getting their chance. You know, Dave, I always try to tell people when a company does well, but there's one of these little glitches and a stock gets crushed. That's your only chance. It's so hard to get into your stock. This is the moment to buy Roblox. I sincerely believe that. And I'm glad you came on because that convinces me that I am right. So I want to thank David Buzuki, founder and CEO of Roblox. Hey, buy TikTok. It'd be better if you had it.
Thank you, Jim. Great to be here. Oh, great to see you, Jim. Thank you. We'll be everybody's back here for the break. Coming up, hot off a new logo redesign, Kramer's getting a read on the insurance space and interest rates with the CEO of the Hartford. Next.
And now, a next-level moment from AT&T business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows, and they need to be there in time for International Sleep Day. You've got AT&T 5G, so you're fully confident. But the vendor isn't responding, and International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T 5G lets you deal with any issues with ease, so the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. AT&T 5G requires a compatible plan and device. Coverage not available everywhere. Learn more at att.com slash 5G network.
Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson Report.
The last few years have been phenomenal for the insurance industry. They had a tremendous pricing power, leading to, of course, higher premiums, and they've been able to invest those premiums in the bond market for some excellent returns.
Take the Hartford Insurance Group, known by most people as the Hartford. It's a major player in property and casualty insurance, group benefits, mutual funds, but a whole lot of other stuff. Here's a stock that ran from 19 at the COVID lows all the way to nearly 125 last November. It's pulled back to 113. Oh, I like this level. This company's nearly doubled its earnings per share over the past five years. But with interest expected to come down this year, can the stock keep climbing? Is that really the metric?
Last week, the Harper reported what I thought was an excellent quarter with a big earnings beat thanks to lower than expected catastrophic losses. However, the company had a larger than expected reserve charge that spooked investors, set the stock down 2% the next day. I always think reserve charge is a great way to judge whether somebody's being prudent.
And today, the Hartford rang the closing bell here at the New York Stock Exchange. Celebrating a fresh brand with a modernized version of the iconic Stagg logo. And I think this business is very strong. Don't take it from me. Let's take it with Chris Swift. He's the chairman and CEO of the Hartford. To learn more, Mr. Swift, welcome back to Mad Money.
It's great to be here with you, Jim. I have followed your career since you took over the Hartford. And it's it's amazing. I mean, it can't be just timing. Nobody's that lucky. I mean, you're good. Could you please explain to us? First of all, I want to know about the stag. But I also want to know what you decided to do because your company is crushing it.
Well, you know, it's a team effort, first of all. So, you know, I appreciate the acknowledgement that the team is performing at a high level. Now, we're here today, you know, rolling out our new brand. You know, we're becoming a more growth and innovative orientated company. We're trying to be in tune with customer needs more. And we want the brand to keep up with that.
Really what we're trying to do with the brand is make it much more digitally orientated, changing the color a little bit, being able to use components, but still honor the rich history. And our brand goes back...
Almost 215 years. It's really based on trust, stability, confidence. So there's a lot. The power of the brand. We just want it a little bit more modernized. Okay. This is important for people because you have some personal lines and that's great. But the two things that are mostly hidden from individuals that really matter. Group benefits. We know that somebody does. It turns out to be you a lot of times. And then commercial lines. People don't really understand, but you're the king of it.
Well, I would say commercial lines are largest, most profitable business. It had an excellent year. Groups top line, 9%.
That's very big for an insurance company. It's very big. Very good margins, very consistent with 2023, which we guided to a little bit in 24. So that's a powerful business. And you of all people know our small business franchise is world class. It's fantastic. But we fill in a middle and large component, a specialty. We do some international activities at Lloyd's. And then the benefits business, it is really a gem because it's a diversifier.
Our PNC businesses are exposed to property casually. Benefits is basically life and mortality and morbidity. And we're a six and a half billion dollar business, number three in the country. And a lot of people love doing business with us. OK, so you're also prudent, which, of course, I like. And one of the things you're prudent about is people might say, well, how about those wildfires?
You guys have been understanding of some places that may not merit writing anymore because they're just too dangerous. And you're a prudent person. You're a prudent company.
Well, you're true. We've worked hard on improving our underwriting capabilities, particularly for all major perils, which I put fire in one of them, but only hurricane, tornado, flood, winter freeze, all of them. You're not a climate denier. I know that. No, it's real, and we're reacting to it. But I think in California specifically, I'll just give you one data point. In February of 24, we stopped writing new homeowners business. Okay.
We did, because we didn't think we can earn an adequate risk-adjusted return. California's had some policy issues, I would say, in letting price and risk match up pretty well. So we took a pause, and since then it's only gotten worse. And it's unfortunate that...
California needs some leadership right now between the governor, his insurance commissioner, legislature. They need real reforms fast. Or otherwise, people should come back in, Jim. Right. People should think twice about moving there. It's OK. I don't want you to be the arbiter of where people live. But at the same time, you can't be uninsured and live in a house that's ridiculous. It is particularly in California where there's a lot of expensive homes. And right. It's beautiful, but it hasn't.
It hasn't, from a policy side, kept up with sort of modern ways. Okay, you have been phenomenal for your shareholders. So then the question might be, when we see the CPI,
It does seem to be that insurance has been something that we haven't been able to keep up with in terms of the rate increases. Typically, what happens is as those rates go up, new guys come in and say, wow, I can make a ton of money. Why is no one new coming in to go against you guys? I would say there's been some new capital coming into property and property.
cyber and financial lines. So, yeah, over the last two or three years, there's been some new capital. There's been the rates are higher than they've been. Well, I have always said it's still a good time to be a property, casually insure. I think you can earn good returns prudently. You've got to be an underwriters, underwriter, Jim, which I know, you know. Oh, absolutely. You've got to select risk in certain areas. You've got to just avoid. Now, I do want to talk about your culture.
Because I think that knowing you as a person outside of work, this is incredibly important to you. I also know that there's a lot of stuff about how DEI is closed down in some places. But I know that you're a person who understands the need to have a great team. What are you doing in this new era where it seems that there are a lot of people who are going across purposes to what I know you as a person are doing? Well, you know, I would say our culture is, I think, pretty special and unique. Yeah.
We pride ourselves on being team-orientated, equitable. We like many voices around the table with multiple ideas. We want empathetic people and leaders to relate to customers, but also pick up and coach teams.
I don't care what you call it these days. I mean, we know what works for our culture. We know what attracts people, what keeps people in the organization. And I think from a shareholder's perspective, I think shareholders like what we're doing, given what we've done the last 10 years. I think they should. If they don't, I don't know what they want. I want to thank Chris Swift, chairman, CEO of the Hartford. Thank you, Chris. What's going to happen to your Eagles Sunday? I'm not worried. How about that? Okay. All right. Thank you very much, Chris.
Then we'll be back here for the break. Coming up, is beauty in the eye of the investor? Kramer sitting down with Elf Beauty's CEO fresh off the company's earnings report. Next.
Is the cosmetics market falling apart? I thought this was just an estate order problem, but after the close today, Elf Beauty turned in a distinctly suboptimal quarter. The stock's getting obliterated in after-hours trading. Elf has always had a great reputation for selling solid products at a significant discount to the high-end stuff. For a long time, it was one of the best growth stories out there. Last summer, the stock started rolling over on slowing growth worries.
And it's had a hard time stabilizing ever since. It was only up a few bucks from its 52-week low at the close, and that was before the stock got pulverized in the wake of earnings. Speaking of numbers, Elf delivered a big top-line beat but a small earnings miss, which would have been fine, except management disclosed that January was softer than expected, and they cut their forecast for the 2025 fiscal year pretty substantially. So what is happening here?
Let's dig deeper with Tarang Amin. He's the chairman and CEO of Elk Beauty to find out more about the quarter and what comes next. Mr. Amin, welcome back to Mad Money. Well, thank you for having me. So, Tarang, I've got to tell you, I was a little, I have to admit, distressed because in your conference call tonight, you talked about how, frankly, that January was not good.
And I'm trying to get a sense of a softer January. What that may mean is, is the entire industry not doing well because you're kind of joining Estee Lauder in saying that things aren't that good right now? Well, first of all, I'm proud of our Q3 that we reported. We reported net sales growth of 31 percent, over 220 basis points of market share gains. And it was our 24th consecutive quarter of net sales growing above 20 percent.
You're right. We did say that January was softer than we expected. We're seeing that across the industry. And we really think there are three factors. One, the category experienced declines in January. Two, we're launching our biggest viral launch of 2024, our lip oils. I think I was on your show just last year as we were launching them. And then three are some of our couple of our new products are off to a slow start, but it's still very early. I would say we still have marketing activations coming for those.
our shelf resets won't be complete until the end of february including picking up a major space at target and walgreens so i remain bullish on the business but our approach is always we have a high degree of transparency if we see something we pass it through and i think it's one of the reasons why we've consistently delivered why would a category have this kind of decline i mean people don't suddenly just decide they they're going to wear a lot less makeup i'm confused
Yeah, well, I think there's two things that happened. One is the December period was highly promotional. Sometimes you have like this consumer hangover after they loaded up on a lot of product in December. Now, we're not promotional. The industry was. And you sometimes have a trough after that.
I think the second thing that happened in January is the social commentary was much less, I think down by almost 20 percent. And two things happened there. One, I think with the wildfires in L.A., people didn't want to be tone deaf of posting things while that devastation was going on. And so you also had a lot of uncertainty on TikTok. It seemed like the only thing people were posting on TikTok is would it stay open or wouldn't it?
So we see those things normalizing over time. We think the category is not nearly as promotional. That should help going forward. Same with social. Social really helps really propel new products. And we absolutely see that also increasing over time. One of the reasons I have been enamored of your business is because you have the lowest price, but I don't think people can really tell the difference in quality. Obviously, there are other people who disagree with that, but you do have a potential tariff problem.
And I wanted to know if the president goes ahead with or steps up the tariff, at what point would it hurt your ability to be able to compete against some of these bigger companies that, frankly, do charge a great deal? Well, we have an incredible price umbrella. If you look at our average unit retails on Elf, they're $6.50 versus close to $10 for the legacy mass players and over $10.
$23 for prestige brands. And so the way I answer the tariff question is we've been facing 25% tariffs since 2019. And we use a very balanced plan. We selectively priced one third of our SKUs up a dollar. We had cost savings, supplier concessions, FX moved in our favor.
And this time around, it's just an additional 10 points right now. We could use that same balanced plan. Plus, we have greater supplier diversification and a much bigger international business. So I feel confident that we can maintain our extraordinary value and address the tariff issue. I bet you brought up the international. Your net sales grew 66 percent year over year. Now, this could be a terrific way to offset whatever is weaker in the United States and obviously wouldn't have the tariff. How can you accelerate the international business?
Well, we've been making great progress. As you mentioned, the quarter, we're up 66% in international. And we had strength both in our existing markets of the UK and Canada, as well as some of the recent markets we just entered. We entered back half of the year with Rossmann in Germany, Etos in the Netherlands.
Douglas Italy and a number of other customers. And one of the things I'm really proud of is in all of those customers that we launched and we're already a top three brand. And so we're seeing pent up consumer demand for elf and our strategy is very much a disciplined, sequential rollout in additional countries. So we definitely see that as one of the major white spaces ahead, along with color cosmetics, where the number one unit share brand in the U.S., number two in dollar share.
with a clear line of sight to clear market leadership. We have two of the fastest growing skincare brands in Elf Skin and Notorium, a long way to go there. And our digital business continues to be quite strong. Now, I saw that you're in Dollar General. Now, I thought that was a little down market. I have Dollar General right next to me. I like to go to a little down market versus where you've been before. But I guess they have a huge number of stores. And I know that you do offer inexpensive cosmetics. How is that working out?
You know, that's been working out great. We entered a subset of their doors in the last quarter, and we've been really pleased with what we saw. And part of it is the strategy really aligns. Dollar General's strategy is to serve the underserved. 80% of their stores are in rural areas with less than 20,000 people.
Previously, those consumers only could get the legacy brands. Our ability to give the best of beauty at incredible prices is really resonating. So, in fact, we're so happy with what we're seeing at Dollar General. We're going to expand in the next subset of doors this spring. Wow. OK, good, because I know that that look, I think it's a great market because they keep putting up stores constantly. I do want to ask you about your marketing expense and what's necessary for higher sales growth. Would you have to start spending more if these trends from January continue?
Well, we're really satisfied with our marketing. We have marketing ROIs well above industry benchmarks, multiples above industry benchmarks. It's been one of the ways we've been able to engage and entertain our community, how we're the number one brand amongst Gen Z, Gen Alpha, Millennials. So we feel great about marketing. I think, you know, we did debate, should we spend a little bit more in marketing given how effective it is? But I think with this broader consumer macro, consumers being cautious, maybe a little bit worried about inflation, maybe worried about the economy,
We thought, you know, let's let's let the macro get a little bit better before we we fuel even more marketing. But we love the marketing we're doing. We're constantly disrupting. We're constantly engaging consumers. And and like I said, it's really working. Well, the last question, I do hope that it's too early, I guess, to say it's only been a few days in February. But did the end of January get a little better as we got further from the fires?
You know, it did start getting better, particularly on the social commentary. I feel like, you know, we're still up against that big lip oil launch last year, but we'll face that from cycle to cycle. Overall, if you look at our back half of our fiscal year, we're still projecting 14 to 16 percent net sales growth.
on a category that's down 5%. And we continue to build a ton of market share. Even in January, which was a weak month for us, we still built 90 basis points of market share. So I'm highly confident of our ability to drive industry-leading growth and continue to take market share. Excellent. That's Tarang Amin. He's the CEO of Elf Beauty. Thank you so much, Tarang. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you, too. Mad Money's back after this.
Coming up, Kramer takes your calls. And the sky's the limit. It's a fast-fire lightning round. Next. It is time. It's time for the lightning round. It's time for Tony in Florida. Tony.
Hey, Jim, I just want to thank you and Jeff. I'm a loyal club member since day one. And you make everything funny and interesting for us that don't know a lot about stocks. All right. We're trying to get everybody to be better educated. I thank you for saying that. Want some more people joining the club. How can I help?
Yeah, I have a stock here that basically I pay to them every month. And they're the top in renewable energy and everything. And they're a utility. And it gives you a 3% dividend. I would like to stick with them since I give them, like I said, money every month. What do you think about Interra Energy, NEE? I like them. I think it's good. I think it's a great utility. I wish I had a little bit better yield, but that's just the stock has moved so much. I think you've got a good one. Let's go to Ryan in Ohio. Ryan.
Booyah, Jimbo. Booyah. Hey, brother. I found a stock that looks good fundamentally, looks good financially, about to actually be cash flow positive. What are your thoughts on Fastly? No. I mean, they've missed the quarter too often. If you want to be in that, you want to be in cloud flip, which just reported tonight. Matthew Prince doing an absolutely terrific job. Let's go to Doug in Ohio. Doug.
Good evening, Jim. How are you? I am good. How are you? Good. Thank you. I'm calling about Danaher. Danaher's been bad for me. I've known the company for so long, but that last quarter was terrible. And frankly, they were very smug on the call talking about how good it was. And that was a very ill-advised strategy that they adopted. And I don't like it. Let's go to Ben in Wisconsin. Ben.
What is up, Mr. Kramer? How's it going, man? What's going on? Good. So I got a company I've been following for a while, and I'd love to get your input. It's an electrical communications and infrastructure solutions provider that is a major beneficiary of the data center build-out and long-term theme of the housing market shortage. It just reported another strong quarter of earnings, 20% revenue growth, 30% increase in operating income, and 45% increase in EPS.
It has a great management team, making strategic acquisitions, and it's starting to buy back shares. The ticker symbol is IESC. That's Jeffrey Gendel's company. He is just an amazing man. He's had a long history in understanding about this kind of business, and I salute him. Gendel is a buy, okay? That's the way I look at IESC. It's Gendel, and he's a winner. Let's go to Joe in New Jersey. Joe.
Hello, Mr. Kramer. Joe, how you been? Thank you for taking my call. Of course. And go Eagles. Go, Bergs. I've owned this stock in the past, and I want to know if Schlumberger is a buy. You know what? Look, it's the best house in a bad neighborhood, and we don't want to be in bad neighborhoods. And I'm so sorry. Really great company, but I don't want to recommend the stock. Let's go to Scott in Florida. Scott. Hey, Jim. Big booyah from the Sunshine State. Oh, thank you. What's happening?
Oh, not much. Long time viewer, club member, first time caller. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I've got a stock I've been in for a couple of years now. I've been able to reap my core expenses out of it and I've made some good money on it.
All right. And I was getting ready to liquidate it on their last earnings report, and then I was on their conference call, and they've got like over a billion dollars in back order, and it's a $3.6 billion company. Ooh, interesting. Interesting. Go ahead. Which one is it?
You've seen their work. You've been to the Salesforce Tower out in San Francisco. Their company is Technoglass. Wow, that's theirs? I did not know that, and I did not know them. You know, for the club we've been buying Home Depot every chance we can get, every time it dips, I want to look at Technoglass before I make a judgment. But that sounds like a very interesting situation. So stay tuned for that one. Let's go to Howard in Washington. Howard. Hey, Jim. How's it going? Well, how about you, Howard?
And it's which one?
Oh, A10. A10. Okay, look. A10 is up in a straight line. It's a parabolic move. It's a good company, but I can't recommend parabolic stocks. Let that one come in a little. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, are some investors getting things wrong? Kramer's laying out some key points he's learned from the CEOs of Honeywell and Arm Holdings. Back
Look, we've got to stop getting obvious things so wrong. It's costing us too much money. This morning, I interviewed Vimal Kapoor. He's the CEO of Honeywell and Rene Haas, the CEO of Arm Holdings. I spent a considerable amount of time just correcting the headlines I read about both companies. Headlines just distorted everything. It took you right off the scent. If you got a pro this morning and you watched the crawl, the line under the pictures that tells you what's trading, you might have seen 100%.
Honeywell trading at $235, fully $13 above where it closed yesterday. Frank Holland, the excellent host of our 5 a.m. show, immediately said that the rally is because the company's putting into three different businesses, automation, aerospace and specialty chemicals. Totally true. But somehow people went nuts when they saw this news. They didn't wait to see how the company was doing.
The fundamentals. Now, we've known about the breakup for ages. Who was surprised by this? What lunkhead brought it up in the 230s? I knew it could head right back down if the earnings of the forecast were below expectations. We've been telling that to club members for ages. How much down? Look, when Honeywell reports it as an unfortunate habit of falling short of what the analysts expect for the next quarter. I wasn't on air, but I finished my early morning workout, took my shower, got dressed and looked at the tape again. Suddenly, the stock was back down to $211.
And I knew the euphoria of the split was going because it shouldn't have been there to begin with, replaced by the cold hard facts of the guidance shortfall. $235 down to $211. That's a lot of money lost. And by the end of the day, it finished down $12.53, well, more than 5%. Now, if they had simply guided conservatively last quarter, I think that the stock would have actually ended higher. But they did it again with that over-promise and then under-deliver signature reporting.
Now, when I got to speak to CEO Vimal Kapoor on Squawk on the Street, I asked him to explain how his breakup could be the next GE, one of the greatest splits of all time. In the GE scenario, you've got an aerospace company, a medical equipment company, and a power plant equipment company. For years, GE's power business had been a real dog.
But thanks to the data center revolution, the whole world desperately needs more electricity. And G.E. Vranova builds power plants. Something's fantastic coming. How about the Honeywell breakup? Right now, their automation division is doing poorly. I think that can change. Laser focused. The aerospace business where they make the cockpits for every major aerospace company. It's a gem. Plus, they own a piece of a quantum computing company. It's actually the real deal. And they get to sell that, too. In short, I
I believe Honeywell will be worth far more than the sum of its parts once it's broken up. It's a serious buy down here. I say at $205, you pull the trigger. That's when we'll come back to it and buy back what we sold for the trust. All right, how about Arm Holdings? Complicated story. The stock's been a horse ever since I pounded the table on it. After speaking to CEO Rene Haas after the last quarter, I pushed it hard back then. But
But this time, I just wanted to use the call to get a little more information about Arm's close relationship with NVIDIA, which benefits both companies. NVIDIA, you know, stock's been horrible. Specifically, I want, lately, specifically I wanted to know how NVIDIA's doing ever since we heard the deep seek, that Chinese AI outfit, claims it can compete with the major players using far less hardware.
Haas explained that this situation is much better for NVIDIA's latest ship, Blackwell, because that one comes with the software you need to take DeepSea to the next level. This is something that Ben writes us. Ben understands. He's a research analyst from Mellius. He told me it could be happening. Rather than doing badly, NVIDIA's actually going to be doing better with it. No wonder NVIDIA's stock went higher today, rallying almost $4.00.
They just can't talk about it because they're in a quiet period. As for Arm, terrific quarter, but the stock had run and the semis are brutal if they have run ahead of the quarter this year. They have become a very tough group to own. So two interviews, two perspective changers. It's why you must watch the interviews on our network, because how else will you know what you need to course correct if you're getting something wrong? I like to say, as always, bull market somewhere. I promise you I'll find it just for you right here on MadMoney. I'm Jim Cramer. See you next time.
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