Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 1/30/25
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My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bone working somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now.

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome, everybody. Welcome to Kramerica. People make friends. I'm just trying to make a little money, and we're going to do that. My job is not just to entertain them, to educate. It's going to teach you. Call me, 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer. Be nice. When we value stocks in this environment, we tend to think of how they'll fare in a world of rising long-term interest rates. Oh, J-PAL, J-PAL. Or how they'll perform under the new presidential regime, Trump.

We care about the sector and how it's behaving. But how about the companies? How about the people who run them? We don't talk enough about the people who run the enterprise around here. And some, not all situations, but some, that is all that matters if you want to make huge amounts of money, which you do. The transcendence of the enterprise, thanks to the leadership of a great CEO. Why not celebrate it? Hey,

Stop denigrating it, at least. So in a day where the average did well with Dow gain 169 points, it has to be climbed 0.53%. Now it's like advanced 0.25%. You know what? It may pay to think bigger instead of just being in the tech battleground out here every day.

For example, Apple reported a race. Now, we knew coming into the quarter that iPhone sales might be light and China sales might be sluggish. And that's exactly what happened. iPhone sales of around 69 billion were light versus expectations of more than 70 billion. China sales did decline 11% year over year and missed the consensus expectations by more than 2 billion. There. There. I got it out. I got the bad news out. You won it again.

I gave it to you. Of course, that ignores the fact that Mac and iPad both beat expectations. It ignores the fact that the increasingly important services line grew 14 percent, beat expectations as well. It ignores strengthening markets in Europe and the rest of Asia, maybe outside of China. It ignores all that's coming down the pike for Apple and AI. Later, health care, which CEO Tim Cook continues to believe will be huge for the company, told me that tonight.

And then on the call, the company actually gave better than feared outlook for the current quarter. Guess what? They'll beat growth. Low single digits. You know what? And then the stock had to flip positive because there's so many people betting against Apple. Go figure.

But you know what? Apple don't trade it, right? But I have to tell you, I do want more out of my stocks and just better than feared. I am tired of tech just sitting there and people arguing about it all the time. It's getting boring to me.

And that's why I want to go far afield tonight and suggest that we look for the companies with the best new coaches, because we know a great new coach with a fresh look can easily turn around a company. And I want to know them. For instance, I want to start with someone we had on the show last night who's making more money for you than any company I'm talking about. I'm talking about Kevin Hoffman.

He's the CEO of Brinker. Hey, just because it's small doesn't mean you can make money. There's no rule. You may know him as the parent of Chili's. You probably ate at one unless you're like really rich and you're like one of those oligarchs that Biden was talking about. It's a chain of 1,200 casual dining restaurants in the U.S. Try it. They got good rings. A

A few years ago, Hockman departed a high-level job at Yum! Brands, where he ran KFC, in order to take the helm of Brinker. That was the, Norm Brinker was the guy who run it. That's where they got that name. I'm following, you know, I followed the company from when Norm Brinker was alive. My kids like Chili's. I always liked the Price Point, the Convivial Crowd, and of course the Baby Back Ribs. But I never liked the stock. Nothing special, marginal, meaningless.

And then less than three years ago, Hockman came roaring in as CEO and it's never been the same. He simplified the menu. That's too hard. That's what they have to do with Starbucks, too. He gave you a value meal dinner under 11 bucks, an inexpensive, terrific mixed drink with real good tequila, special management and a real, by the way, and a delicious dinner for everybody. I saw it on TikTok.

The result, the stock's now up more than 340% in just the past year. Yeah, you're fighting to get Microsoft and get that 1%. How about that? How about the 300 plus? If Brinker goes to 200, and hey, it's already 182, do you know that it's a 10-bagger? The legendary Peter Lynch, the former manager of the Magellan Fund and the author of One Up on Wall Street, the best business book ever written, talks about how the goal of every investor is to hit a 10-bagger. I think Hockman's going to give you a 10-bagger. I wish tech could still give you one.

Second, there's where I have my cup of coffee. It's money, Starbucks. When this stock was beaten down to 77 bucks, the company announced that the old CEO was out, Brian Nickell, the incredible and creative executive who turned around Chipotle during his dark days, would now be taking over.

Immediately the stock took off. I kept thinking Starbucks would go down at some point with travel trust loans and wanted to buy more, but it never did. That initial run in the high 90s never looked bad. In fact, when the company reported this week, the stock powered ever higher to the point where this very big Dow company is now up over 40% since the last CEO got fired. Why? Didn't the media focus on how Starbucks missed its numbers?

That's what I heard. Yeah, I call that headline-itis. The inability to capture the story in 12 words at last. Here's the answer. First, Starbucks the coffee might be good, but Starbucks the company was really poorly run. And Starbucks the stores?

Disasters. I mean, that's precisely the kind of job Brian knows how to do. It's what he did at Chipotle. In fact, it's almost as if he were born for this job. You know what it reminds me of? And I hate that this pains me because it's another team. The Washington Commanders. The Commanders.

Yeah, when the fabulous Josh Harris bought the club from billionaire buffoon Dan Snyder. In their first year, they get in the NFC championship. It was manifest destiny for both. I have to tell you that. After interviewing Brian the other day, he spent the last three months figuring out what's wrong with Starbucks. And he's already taken actions like putting names on the cups, bringing the condiments table back, offering porcelain cups to those who stay and spare no detail, uncovering the cover on the darn outlets that represented the end of the third place coffee house because you could have a cup of coffee now with the juiced coffee.

PC. Symbolic? How about realistic? Next, how about Larry Culp at the old General Electric? This company really stunk up the joint for so long, you almost had to believe GE was merely a practical joke played on the market. Larry Culp didn't think it was all that funny, though. He raised some cash by selling some good stuff because he knew every turnaround has to start with a balance sheet. Without a good balance sheet, the turn would be still warm. Then he split the company into three separate businesses, GE Healthcare, GE Vrnova, and GE...

aerospace. Now, I remember going out to lunch with Larry and saying to him that this power business was bleeding so much money, the spinoff had to be a disaster. He challenged me. He said, look, the division's languishing, sure, but he told me not to worry. He worked to get the company an investment-grade rating, and then everyone would want a piece of it. I almost betook my Diet Coke.

I don't know how far Larry can see around the corner, but now GE Vranova is a beloved company, the hottest one with momentum. Traders can't get enough of it precisely because it makes the turbines and windmills. They call them turbines. I used to call them turbines and windmills that you need to power all those new data centers. He appointed Scott Strachan to run what became GE Vranova. The stock started trading independently, 141 about 10 months ago. Now it's at 383. Oh, and don't forget, it's also going to be the company that builds small, modular nuclear plants that everybody loves so much.

I'll give you another one. It's kind of funny. This one is Nikesh Arora. When he took over at Palo Alto Networks, PANW, a once powerful cybersecurity company that had fallen behind the others, people thought turning his business around was too big a task. At best, he'd just be a dealmaker and a so-so one at that. I know Nikesh is brilliant, competitive guy whom I wanted to bank with, which is why we bought the heck out of the stock when he got put in. That's the charitable trust being the way.

Now, Palo Alto had a $19 billion market capitalization when the cash took over on June 6, 2018. It's now worth $123 billion. He created $104 billion in value. Hey, one more. How about this one? Bracken Dowell. He left Logitech for the challenge of turning around the broken clothing company, VF Corp, a little over a year and a half ago. Stock was trading around $19, heinous balance sheet. In July of last year, he sold off VF Corp's hottest brands,

to Eslur Luxottica for 1.5 billion in cash. It was good, it was good, he had to do it. But Darrell, he needed cash. Sure enough, the company reported a great quarter last night and the stock shot up to almost 27 bucks.

Finally, let's give IBM something Christian is due. When he took over at IBM, he didn't know what it was at anymore. Who knew what it was at anymore? And the stock traded around 110. Christian took it from a hardware outfit with a consulting arm, spun off the legacy businesses, Kindle, and Kindle's doing well too, by the way, and guns the stock to 258 as of today. Now, it's almost 50% software gusher cash flow. Don't think shot up 13% in response to a great quarter. What a winner. Best of all, I think that gain is sustainable. So here's the bottom line.

Not all publicly traded companies are hostages to forces beyond the control, like a Chinese outfit we never heard of that has just made it so that all we talk about is, I wish, you know what we get? I have it. I have it on the app. It's called SeatGeek. That's what I'm calling it from now. I got really good Super Bowl doing SeatGeek. Isn't that what we're talking? The Chinese AI company? All right, enough already. Right with the SeatGeek? Sometimes when you bring in a great new CEO, they go,

They're offering me stocks in the 40. He's got a seat. A seat's in the 40 right here with the seat key. They can turn around the whole business, giving the investors spectacular gains. Even tech blinds us like mustard gas. I'm telling you, I'm mad money. We're never going to stop searching for opportunities to make you money, not just to argue about stocks. I want to start with someone like Kyle in New Jersey. Kyle. Mr. Jim Cramer, how are you, buddy?

I'm good. I'm worried about the seeking coming through and talk for the Super Bowl. I'm sorry. Deep sea. Deep sea. What's going on? Listen, congrats on your Eagles making it to the Super Bowl, man. Well, thank you. And you stuck with them through thick and thin. And if Brandon Graham suits up, you know, look out. I did wish I wish the Reeds today. Best of luck, because they are really some great people. And I kid you not. They are fabulous. All right.

Maybe we should talk about it. Should we do some stocks? I prefer sports, but I got this contract. I know, man. Well, listen, I have a passion for football and a passion for stocks. I like that. I like that. Take the over on some stocks. Listen, I want to wish my friend Jeff a happy 30th birthday today. Oh, of course, Jeff. Man, happy B-Day. And she's got an app in at U-Penn, so I want you to talk to Jeremy Siegel to see if you can get her in for me.

Done. Done. Let me make that. Can I wait to the commercial or I have to call him now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Now we're going to know the stock. Let's even do better. Let's go to the stock. I thought with Trump coming in, this thing would be on fire. Tariffs were announced today, buddy. What am I doing with my Cleveland Cliffs?

Man, you want to take the over on Cliffs anytime touchdown. Okay? Do that. I would do it. Let me see. I think it's 35 to 1. Look, I think Cleveland Cliffs is so cheap now when you get the tariffs. The only reason they've really been crushed is because all that Chinese dumping.

And that's going to end with the tariffs because that's what they're going to really police. I like Cliffs. Of course, I think Nucor is a better stock. And who am I? Dave's birthday? Who else do we have? You gave me a long list of people. And Jeff, Jeff, happy birthday, Jeff. I'll have you over for a couple of brewskis later. Look, sometimes when a company brings in a new CEO, they can turn around the entire business and investors some remarkable gains. Did I mention NVIDIA yet?

I'll never stop searching for real opportunities to make you money. I'll make money. Talk about opportunities. Thermo Fisher is on the move higher after today's earnings beat. But can the stock keep running after its post-pandemic drought? Let's talk this year. Then WM, the artist formerly known as Waste Management, kind of like RH, used to be Restoration Harbor, posted its fourth quarter results last night, closing up over 6% today.

I'm checking him in the top basket to read on the macro environment. And later, I got an exclusive MedTech player. Oh, my. Even those on Pickleball know this because you probably have your knees and they say striker. But don't open them up to see the name. Just trust me. And that's been propelling the outperforms of the stock who speak to the CEO. So I had an idea. Dave, stay with Kramer.

Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow at Jim Kramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer. Hashtag Mad Mentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneyatcnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com.

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All right. What's gotten to the stock of Thermo Fisher Scientific this month? The big life sciences equipment maker that we love so much has been range bound for the past four years. After a huge run during the early days of the pandemic, stock peaked near the end of 2021. It's basically been trading sideways since until this month. Just since the beginning of the new year, Thermo Fisher shot up almost 17 percent, including a monster 6.8 percent run today and wake up a really good quarter. Clean top and bottom line beat basically solid free.

full year of podcasts. So why is it that Wall Street's finally coming around to this great company? Let's take a look with Mark Casper. He's the chairman, president, CEO, and frequent guest of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Mr. Casper, welcome back to Man Money.

Jim, thanks for having me. It's really a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk with you today. Well, I'm thrilled you're back because I know that you've been saying you've been right all along about when things would turn. You said it would turn now. It certainly indicates from this quarter that the turn is at hand. Yeah, we finished the year on a really strong note to return to organic growth, 4% for the quarter, translating that into 8% adjusted EPS growth.

well ahead of expectations and really enter this year with great momentum and really expect our markets to continue to improve. And the feedback, obviously, from our investors is very positive today about the outlook for 2025 financially. The team did a really nice job of executing in 2024.

Follow the industry pretty closely. There was a very good outfit yesterday that reported Dan Hur and they said things are not good. And they gave a very bad forecast. I felt very disappointing. Have you guys just have a different different client base or doing better in China? Because it's clear that you pulled away from the group.

Yeah, you know, when I think about our performance, we have a number of fine competitors out there.

And we've been able to gain market share very consistently and methodically year in and year out. And when you look at our organic growth, which is a good measure of that, we've been able to outpace the industry in the best of times and even in challenging times. And 2024 was another year where our organic growth was clearly better than others. And our customers really value the status that we have with them. We are their trusted partner. And you're seeing our customers do more and more business, particularly in pharma and biotech,

which is allowing us to drive share gain, growth, and continuing to outpace the industry. Some of your optimistic nature on this year being that you expect that there will be more biotech deals, and as soon as they get the money, they go and they write a check to Thermo Fisher.

Yeah, so when I think about our role as enabling our customers, particularly in pharmaceutical and biotech, you know, when I say trusted partner, we are helping them in their research labs to do the study of the molecules. We're helping them in design the clinical trials, execute the clinical trials, and then ultimately develop and manufacture the medicines that they will bring to market. And because of that very holistic nature of the role, we are able to have a status that is different than anybody else's.

And we're seeing optimism in the biotech community. That's clearly been strengthening. It's not back to normal yet, but it's recovering nicely. We're also seeing great confidence in the larger pharmaceutical companies. They've gone through a period where they've fine-tuned their pipelines.

And as I've had the opportunity to meet with many of our customers, quite a bit of optimism about what 2025 and beyond holds for that customer set. So I'm excited for the year. And we're still in a recovering market, but it'll be good to get back to strong growth this year. Do we have to worry at all about this, the new president, new administration and a possible freeze of NIH money? NIH does a lot of good things and really is basic research. We need it. Is it something you're concerned about?

Yeah, so when I think about, we'll work very collaboratively with the administration. We did so in President Trump's first term and really had a strong reputation of doing what we said we were going to do, and that served us well. And, you know, we'll make sure that we're educating...

the various stakeholders on the importance of the NIH, because the NIH has been a backbone to fuel American industries, the biotech industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the diagnostics industry, our sector. You know, it really is based on the backbone of the NIH. And, you know, we'll look forward to collaborating from that perspective as well. At the same time, I've not seen I look at every company that does business in China.

And what they're all fighting for is just hoping to be not down 10 percent. And most of them can't do it. You have very good Chinese numbers. And I know you boys had a great relationship with with the Chinese people, Chinese companies, Chinese regime. It seems to have turned. And yet there's no subsidies for the group. Is this just organic growth in China?

Yeah, so when I look at the year in China, the market conditions are muted, just as the way you characterized it. But we were able to grow our business and we grew our business in the low single digits for the full year and actually grew in the mid single digits in the fourth quarter. That's really a testament to our team just doing a great job in the relevance of our technologies.

You know, strong demand for our instruments. And, you know, we continue to serve the life sciences customers well in China. And we're able to get a little bit of growth in a challenge market condition. So we'll stay focused on customer success and deliver the best possible performance we can in China in 2020. And I just know something that you said that I find surprising. Big, big pharma back.

I mean, I've become convinced that big pharma is just going to ride out these salespeople and pick off the young biotech companies. Has something changed? Do they realize they've got to play a leadership role, get back and do more R&D? You know, when I think about the dialogue, whether they do that R&D organically from the very start or they buy a somewhat early stage company and then bring it to the market, it's

They never buy something that's at the end line. They bring it in a certain stage where we then help them actually bring it, you know, through the clinical trials, ultimately scaling up the manufacturing and then to the market. So, you know, we'll help our customers, whether it's

accelerating the impact of their m a or whether it's you know from the pipelines that they have right from the beginning and well i want to congratulate you a lot of people worried about the group i think we should have all always thought of them as worried about individual companies your company has broken out i knew that would happen that you'd be the first mark casper's president chairman ceo of thermo fisher scientific a stock we've liked for i don't know how about 400 points great to see you mark jim thanks for having me absolutely stay with me

Coming up, waste not, want not. WM's earnings are in. See if it can turn trash into treasure next.

What's at stake when administrations change? From the first 100 days and beyond, EY brings insights on the issues that matter. Executive orders, regulation of AI, the fate of billions in tax credit, global trade and workforce stability. No matter the policy shifts, EY helps business and government leaders remain resilient and seize dynamic growth. EY, navigate the geopolitical and economic landscape with confidence.

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.

One of the things I don't like is people use these aggregate numbers from the government to find out what's going on. I say you got to spend less time focusing on that stuff, like fourth quarter GDP, and more time looking at my favorite unofficial indicator, which is the quarter report from WM, the garbage disposal operation formerly known as Waste Management. Last night, WM reported a nice revenue beat and improved profitability, even as its earnings per share some felt came in light. Well, I don't

care because more important, they should have better than expected full year forecast. That's why the stock shut up more than 6% today. You know, this is the biggest single move since March 2020. Let's think with Jim Fish, the president and CEO of WN. I haven't seen Jim in a long time. Welcome back to the show. Thanks, Jim. How are you? I'm doing well. And I know you got your big golf tournament, but I'm going to be in New Orleans. I was in Phoenix when you had it last time. Obviously, it's one of the best branding operations I've ever seen, isn't it?

It's fantastic. And you got to be excited about your Eagles, right? Well, yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. We look good. Now, talking about looking good, this was a quarter that I think some people were probably worried about. I don't know why. This was a quarter filled with optimism and opportunity. And tell us, give us a little breakdown of what that of what was entailed here.

Well, we have really three big earnings drivers and we're kind of clicking on all cylinders here. The first is, of course, our core business, which has been doing well for a number of years. And that's looking to grow over 7% this year on top of 10% last year. And then secondly, we have the stair cycle business, which we bought only about three months ago. And

And that business, I guess there were a few questions when we bought it, and I think we've pretty much answered all those questions because today there's some real optimism around Stericycle. We felt good about it from the start. I think now the street feels good about it. We think that business has the opportunity to provide synergies, double what we originally thought. Originally, we said $125 million.

And now we're saying $250 million over a period of three years. We like the growth trajectory of the business. We like the medical waste business and the information destruction business. So we're excited about that. And then the third thing is the sustainability businesses, renewable natural gas that naturally comes out of our landfills. We clean it up and turn it into pipeline quality gas. And then, of course, we're rebuilding all of our recycle plants. All of that adds about $800 million in EBITDA over a period of three years.

Well, I guess starting in 27, we'll see that 800 million. Well, I always regard that as found money because I remember the days when it really wasn't a factor. That's fantastic. I am very pro-star cycle. I always liked that because it doesn't have any cyclicality. You do have some. I remember when you were telling me, look, if there's a lot of homes being built, a lot of construction, then we get a little bit of a spike. This should smooth out any of that. Star cycle is big enough to actually smooth out what some people think is the cyclicality of WM.

Well, I think it's right. It's it's it's a little bit of a natural hedge for us. To your point, there's not much cyclicality to it. There's not there's hardly any seasonality to it at all. I mean, we have a little bit of seasonality in in our core business. This helps flatten that out. So I agree with you there. Now, let's talk about home building, as you have mentioned it. I was glad to see that even though I know the home building is not doing that well in the country. Has it been as it minimizes the part of the mosaic of your earnings?

It has over the years. It used to be close to 10% of our business, and now it's probably less than half of that. So it's not a huge component of our business overall.

So we do see it. And we represent just about every segment of the economy, really. And that includes the homebuilders. It includes the industrial side, includes residential. But but for now, the the residential home building, while it is maybe a little bit soft, is not having a huge effect on us. I will say the industrial economy and we talked a bit about that this morning on the call has been soft and our industrial business has been soft and we didn't project it to rebound significantly.

even though we are optimistic with the new administration coming in. But there's other parts of our business that have been very strong. The solid waste business in the landfills has been very good.

special waste projects. We're optimistic about those. So we've built a business that doesn't have a lot of volatility to it because it does have a lot of natural hedges, including stair cycle. Now, I want to go back to the optimism comment. I know it's probably too soon for a lot of new contracts to come. But when I see people who have an industrial part of their business, there's a big spike in optimism. And I always say to people, get out of the political world for a second and just talk about

the actual animal spirits of business. Are you seeing people who want to expand their businesses because that would be more business for you simply because they feel better about the country and the country's economics? I don't know that we've seen it yet. I mean, and it'd be great if we do, but it's only been, you know, less than, I guess, a week since the new administration has been in the office.

So we are, as I said, cautiously optimistic about the future. I do think this administration is going to be pretty pro-business. And I expect that you'll see small business and big business alike grow.

feel good about making big capital investments to grow their own businesses, just like we are. Okay, on the optimism side versus pessimism with industrial, I had a nice talk, I know the guys from Prologis, they're really fabulous, they have the largest warehouse. They're seeing a bottoming process in that kind of business. Nucor is seeing a bottoming process in some of the steel business. Is there a way that we can see some green shoots that you can point to in industrial for you?

I think we tend to be at the back end of the cycle. So, you know, we're a little bit later than those companies in terms of seeing green shoots.

But when we do see them, they, you know, they're encouraging. And I do think we'll see them. We just haven't put anything in our 2025 plan. Not to say we won't. We don't expect it. I wanted to be conservative with that plan. On renewable natural gas, one thing is certain. This president wants to be able to make it so that we can export, which to me says if we export, we're going to get out of this $2 region, go maybe to the $3.50, $4 region as the bottom. What does that mean to your bottom line?

That business, we're going to build 20 of those renewable natural gas plants. It still ends up being, you know, I mentioned $800 million. Probably $500 of that comes from once they're fully built out from the renewable natural gas business by the time we get to 2027. So $500 million on a base of $7.5 billion is still relatively small, but it's important to us.

We love the fact that the business just naturally occurs. I mean, these landfills create gas. And so we're able to take that gas, clean it up and put it onto the pipeline. We do think that what you just mentioned about this administration wanting to become an exporter of gas probably has a positive impact on price. And that will be a positive for us. And how much of it do you use for your own trucks? About 70 percent of our trucks are natural gas.

And I'm going to guess at this that I think it's about three quarters of that today is renewable. And we'll get that to 100% here in the next couple of years.

But right now it's about three quarters of the 70 percent that we burn in our trucks. That is natural. Between that and the rope robotic aspect you have. So you don't have to have an additional person. The cost per truck per people per truck must have gone down dramatically over the time since you came in. It has. Look, I would tell you this is this is probably motivated as much by the fact that these companies,

Some of these job markets are shrinking. It becomes difficult to find folks to drive a truck or to work on a piece of heavy equipment. Our average heavy equipment operator is approaching 53 years old. And that's probably up 10 years from when I started with the company 23 years ago. Similar to the overall population, I think the American population has gone up by an average of about 10 years.

So this is almost by necessity that we're using technology to replace difficult-to-hire heads. I think one thing that I wanted to make sure I was clear on here, though, is we're not laying folks off. All we're doing is using attrition. Some of those jobs have very high turnover rates. In fact, the helpers on back-of-truck jobs,

on the back of the truck, those have as high as 50% turnover. And so as they leave those jobs, we just choose not to replace them and replace the old-style rear loader with a new-style automated side loader. I'm so glad you mentioned that. So many people think that, oh, no, the machines are taking away the jobs. It's actually because of our low birth rate and the fact that some jobs are regarded as not being what people want to do that you can't find people. So it's necessity. Right.

It's not like you want to lay off people and save money. It's necessity. And that's why your company has always done a great job in trying to be good in the community, too. So I want to appreciate you coming on, Jim. It's always great to have you. That's Jim Fish, president and CEO of WM. Thank you for coming on and good luck at your tourney. Thanks very much, Jim. Take care. Talk to you soon. We have money back here for the break. Coming up, is it time to strike on Striker? Kramer digs into the company's latest reports next.

Let's talk about one of my favorite topics that people should be looking at besides just semiconductors. How about health care? Well, most health care stocks have been hit or miss since the election, at least until this week. Some medical device stocks have been doing pretty darn well. And you know, I like that sector. Take Stryker. It's a major player in medical, surgical, neurotechnology, especially orthopedic, endocrinology.

After the close on Tuesday, Stryker reported a terrific top and bottom on my beat. But because this guidance was only in line, the stock actually got dinged a bit in response. That was wrong. But it is up 3% for the year. So it's leaving most of the other health care names in dust. Don't think of me. Let's check in with Kevin Love. He's the chairman and CEO of Stryker Corp. You get a better read. Mr. Love, welcome back to Mad Money. Thanks, Jim. Happy to be here. You know, I am always blown away by your company's ability to find the right area.

and then go in it, get the best acquisitions and make money. I was on your website looking at this Inari Medical and I cannot believe how life-saving what you're doing is from people who literally were told there's nothing we can do. This is a winner. Yeah, we're super excited about it. We already have a neurovascular business which has similar kinds of products that take clots out of the brain

to protect from aneurysms and stroke. This is a natural extension to actually go lower in the body and to remove the clots for pulmonary embolisms,

and deep vein thrombosis. People die from what the really terrific intro video, a woman who was very active and she got the clot and she was pretty much, it was almost fatal. Absolutely. These are life-saving technologies, just as they are in the neurovascular space. But for us, it's very complimentary to neurovascular to have this business. And

It's growing 20% a year. This company and Ari kind of created the category. It's wildly exciting. Incredible. Now, at the same time, you do not get enough airtime for a business called the medical business. And I happen to have, here's a little information, man, I want a colonoscopy today.

And I asked my doctor, what is this? What is this? What is this? What is this? It was all Stryker. Everything around me was Stryker. You own this section of the market and people don't seem to realize how much money can be made. Yeah, we do have a very diverse portfolio. And if you go into the hospital, if you're not already under anesthesia and you look around, you'll see the booms, the lights, the tables, the stretchers, the beds. It's all Stryker. Absolutely. Those products, they're smaller products, so people don't really realize it.

But they're growing double digits. Medical has been actually our fastest growing division the last five years. Well, I kind of felt like one of the things that my doctor said, he's been around, he said, we don't know who else is in it, in the category. What a great compliment to you. Yeah, many of our categories, we have very, very high market

Now, I was watching a video on your site about something that I thought is impossible to do. When someone has a shoulder problem, they have a shoulder problem for the rest of their life. We all know that. That's the one that no one solved. Mako shoulder, solving the problem? Well, it's a brand new application on Mako. So Mako is a robotic-assisted surgery, an acquisition from 11 years ago.

It's used in almost two-thirds of knees in the United States. Our knees are implanted with Mako Robot. Same with hips. And now we've just launched a shoulder application. So we do have total shoulder implants, and we have a nice navigation system that helps surgeons do them. But the robot's going to make it

very easy to do. It makes hard procedures easier to do, safer, less invasive to the patient, faster recovery. So we're wildly excited about this new application that we've just launched in December. Well, it's remarkable. I know you've got some how-to videos. I know it's something that operates itself from that point, but you want that. Yeah, absolutely. It's robotic-assisted. So the surgeon's still there, but the surgeon really can't move outside the boundaries. So as they're making the cuts...

The robot ensures that it's done precisely where the plan has been outlined. Sensational. Now, we want people in health care to not go to the hospital if they can. We'd like them to go to ambulatory surgical centers. But we want them to be equal to what we get at a hospital. Again, strike.

Yeah, in the ASCs, or ambulatory surgery centers, now 17% of our knees are done there, about 15% of our hips. What's beautiful about this is you drive in, it's usually in a strip mall, there's no parking, it's close to your house, and you go home the same day. So everybody's healthy, there isn't anybody sick, it's not like going to a big hospital. And patients like it, the surgeons like it, the nursing staff likes it.

And macros are very prevalent in here. So they do have the latest technologies in these surgery centers. You talk a lot about, I don't know how to put this, but things that go wrong. Apparently feet and ankles have been not that great. But knees and hips, obviously, I play a lot of pickle. I had a 22-person tourney. And all we talked about was who was going to come out.

alive. This thing is something when you have baby boomers doing sports for the first time in a long time, you've got to be having a plethora of people who need new knees. Yeah, actually, since the pandemic, we had a spike after the pandemic, but that's kind of been burned off now. Right. And what we're seeing is an elevated level of demand because patients are more active. Right. Twelve thousand people are turning 65 a day in the United States now. But this activity level, whether it's pickleball or other things, is really causing a lot of

of increased procedures and now they're telling their friends have went to the surgery center i would on the same day i'm back to playing pickleball and so the word is spreading about how great these procedures are well and it's very different people think i always hear people say you know i don't be later for a week in the hospital i don't know what they're thinking now uh... a lot of people worried about tariffs i felt completely reassured on your call you said at one point that we have one factory in mexico

That really is just shrug your shoulders, who cares with you guys. - For Striker. I mean, for the industry, there are a lot of other factors. - Oh no, the industry's filled with problems. - That's right. - But not you guys. - No, we have a very little impact at all. Even with China. Hardly any products that we're bringing in from China, even input materials.

and only one factory out of over 40 factories okay and you have a strategy that i always recommend for people who are owning stocks if you're going to bring in a new stock that's good make sure you trim and don't just say you know what i'm going to ride the whole portfolio if something's not working you actually say it and the implant spine business was not something you wanted anymore yeah over my 12-year tenure that has been the lowest performing business and we've tried multiple times

We've just had too many challenges, and it's kind of a 1% grower over the 12-year period. And as a company, our growth rate's gone from 4% organically to now three years in a row growing double digits. So really, it's just an asset that's better in the hands of someone else. Well, I was going to say to people, they have to understand, you guide up and you guide up and you guide up and you guide up, and it is a remarkable machine that you run, sir.

Thank you so much. I want to thank Kevin Loewe. He's the chair and CEO of Striker. Now, when you look at it, you're going to say, I missed it, okay? But you know that at 200, they felt that. At 300, they felt that. At 350, they felt that. Use common sense. When good companies have stocks, the stocks go higher. They have monies back in for the price.

Coming up, lightning doesn't just strike twice in Kramerica. Booyah, Jimmy Chil. Booyah, booyah, booyah. Thanks for taking my call. It strikes every day. Kramer is back in a flash with your questions. Next. It is time. It's time for the White Round. That's right. You're playing this out.

And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? I'm going to start with Tony in Pennsylvania. Tony! Hey, thank you for taking my call. I'd like to know your take on A-Z-O. Okay, now listen to me. Listen to me good. A-Z-O is a great stock. You always hear people say, well, wait a second. They buy a lot of parts, AutoZone, from China, so therefore it's no good. Forget that. AutoZone is good. They buy a lot of their own stock. Let's go to Reach in New Jersey. Reach!

Hello, Jim. Hi. Hi. I'm so glad I could reach you. I've been listening to you forever and learned a lot. And thank you for sharing your knowledge. Doing it right then. Okay. I want to ask you about Roger Marks, a friend of mine who I think he may be the father of Jeff Marks. I don't know. Love, love, love, love, love, love. All right. What stock, though?

Yeah, well, it's a stock I was going to buy a long time ago. I did buy it. Roger said, no, don't do it. I think it was a political thing and it went down and down and down and now it's turned around. And I believe in it. It's a Plains All-American pipeline. Oh, when you say so. I like that stock. Still got a 7%. I need one more call. Don't cut me off. They're cutting me off. They want me to go to SeatGeek in China again. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the

Lightning Round! The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Some of you may be wondering, how the heck could the stock of Tesla actually rally almost 3% today after reporting numbers that were seemingly disappointing? Their Corolla business isn't doing that well. I mean,

But nobody seemed to care. Well, that's because Elon Musk knows what his investors want. And it's not great auto numbers from 2024. They want his vision for the future. Musk's a nonlinear thinker with a terrific grasp of showmanship. He knows how to come up with incredible ideas. He knows how to pitch them. And most important, he knows how to execute.

So Tesla's not rallying because of the numbers, which were indeed not that good. It's rallying because of Musk's extraordinary performance on the conference call. I want to distill it into two different buckets, the linear bucket and the nonlinear bucket.

First bucket. Tesla didn't make enough cars last year. They didn't sell enough cars. You're crazy, though, if you believe that electric cars aren't coming and being bigger and bigger. Why? Because once Musk delivers better cars, newer cars, better technology, they'll start growing again. And he's going to do that this year. So why sell based on last year's numbers? That

makes no sense. He's talking about robotaxis coming in a couple of months at Austin, Texas, and it's going to blow you away how much better they are than human taxis. He's made a very compelling argument that you simply can't stop the self-driving cars. They're the future.

But that was practically a sideshow compared to my favorite part, the non-linear side of the conference call. And that was all about robots, the Optimus program. I guess his kids like playing with Transformers. Musk's talking about real robots, ones that can do anything we can do physically but better. The trick is actually manufacturing. Musk laments that manufacturing ain't what it used to be. Too many lawyers and bankers. They should just go make things. That's what he wants. He's whining about it. Most of us believe him, and I was...

Both of those things. Still, he says his team can do all the hard manufacturing we need. The idea behind Optimus, the robot program, is simple. You'll have a robot that can do all the boring things that you don't want to do, all the hack work, all the dangerous tasks. As he puts it, quote, we expect to just close the loop with Optimus being used internally at Tesla because we obviously can easily use several robots.

thousand humanoid robots at Tesla for the most boring, annoying task in the factory. Like the task nobody wants to do, where we have to like beg people to do this task. He goes on, I love this. It's like the robot is totally happy to do the boring, dangerous, repetitive task that no humans want to do.

Musk says he'll make a million of these things with a cost to manufacture at less than $20,000 per unit. Now, by the way, it's always been something that Jensen Wong has predicted, and it looks like Musk will do it. At the very least, he's made a strong argument that he'll be the one to get it done. Remember, this technology doesn't have to stop at the factory floor. We all have plenty of things we don't want to do. Imagine having a robot to do your chores. Could it load the dishwasher? I'm always getting yelled at about the dishwasher because I'm terrible at it.

He could be a marriage saver. Only the small-minded regulators could get in his way, especially when talking about robo-taxis and self-driving. But Musk tells us not to worry. The tipping point is almost at hand. It's simple. When we know for a fact that autonomous cars are much safer than humans, something he says will be obvious in a short period of time, then we'll all go autonomous.

If any other CEO in America tried to pull off what he did last night, reporting a not-so-hard quarter and then trying to dazzle shareholders with a brilliant vision of the future, they'd all be laughed out of the industry.

But Musk has such an incredible track record that when he says this stuff, people believe him. And I don't blame them. I believe him, too. He's made his investors so much money over the years. How can he not deserve the benefit of the doubt? Even if you hate Musk's recent move into politics, you can't deny that he's an incredible moneymaker. Why bet against him when you've got Tesla so you can bet with him?

I like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise you I find it just for you out here in MedMoney. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.

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