Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 3/13/25
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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 bull market somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people make tens. I'm just trying to make you some money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, to teach you, get through these tough days like today, okay? That's what we got to do. So,

Call me or tweet me. I don't care. But today we had a monthly call for the CBC Investing Club in the middle of the stock market. In the middle of it. I sensed a positive move. I wanted to get excited. But you know what I had to do?

Had to hold my breath. Because when this market's getting a head of steam going, you know what you can bet on? The president will post something rancorous, dispiriting, and confusing. And the market will immediately get put through the meat grinder. Wouldn't you know it? That's precisely what happened. And it set off a firestorm of selling that burned through the rest of the session. Dow ultimately tumbling 537 points. S&P plunging 1.39%. NASDAQ pumping 1.96%.

And you know what? It can all be traced to a gratuitous message on his social media platform that said that April 2nd tariffs are going to go on, not that anyone thought they wouldn't.

Now, if you didn't know any better, you'd think that the president saw the market starting to make a comeback, decided to nip it in the bud. This really is the Walmart White House. They never stop trying to give us everyday lower prices, except it's our 401ks and our IRAs that are going lower. What I think President Trump doesn't understand right now is just how easy it is to send this market down. It's become ridiculously fragile over the trade issue. And there's always something that goes wrong, especially when you have a president who regularly gives us new negatives because he's mad as hell, he can't take it anymore.

I sit here and wonder why the president does it. I dispute what some tell me, which is that he wants the market to go down quickly rather than more slowly, more measured.

But the quick and noisy retribution to the action of our thoughtless trade associates takes us by surprise, and the uncertainty is crushing us. How else can he suddenly and explosively post that he's going to put on 200% tariffs on all wine and champagne and alcohol products coming out of France and other areas of Europe? And that's in all caps. Sure, it would be better for Napa and for our sparkling wines. If you slap a 200% tariff on real champagne, they're all going to triple the shelf price. Did the White House know that? I'm not sure. Funny thing.

Beneath my gnarly vinyl exterior, underneath all the dollar signs that surround my vital organs, is an actual positive spirit. So I got an idea to counteract my negativity, not yours. I say we do something. I say we take a look and think about what would happen if President Trump were positive.

A positive person with a positive attitude. What if he put his sense of humor to work in a constructive way to remind us that it's not all pain? What would he be posting? And if it would all be realistic, it would all be good. What would he be posting? Let's change the dialogue. Let's make it so it's got the added advantage of being true, but it's got a different tone to it. And you know what? On this given day, this miserable day where you lost a lot of money,

I can tell you that President Trump, hate him or love him, would post something like this. First post. Hey, don't be glum, chum. Dollar General just put up some good numbers. A lot of stores. Inflation fighter. I think DG's back and bigger than ever. And it's ignited Dollar Tree, too. You ought to take a look at both these. If they could actually keep prices down and make portions bigger, they could give Walmart a run for the money. Maybe it's a buy, buy, buy.

There, see? Nice and positive. All right, so come on, a little hyperbolic and a little facetious, but you get what I mean. How about this one? Quote, the last guys who were doing my job gave this Intel a lot of money, and boy, was I angry. I'm still steamed about it, but I see they picked this guy Lip Bhutan as CEO. I'm hearing he's dynamite. Intel's a national treasure. This could be great news. Caps.

Then how about something positive about the worst performing stock in the market? So many sellers at Adobe today. I got a tutorial on this Firefly that does their AI, and I think it's super. You can do anything with it. Why are people giving up on Chanteneau? He's allowed more people to be creative than anyone on Earth. Maybe we just have to look at it differently.

Might want to do something like this. How about that Southwest Air? I was getting worried about that team, but it'll come back. Who knew charging for bags would make such a difference? And then a simple one. I hear NVIDIA's got this Woodstock of AI. I can't wait to hear that Jensen keynote. He's a cool guy. I hear he's a good cook, too. Renaissance man. Final stock. They are shelling Mark Zuckerberg today. I think Meta's beating the Chinese, crushing them at their own game, GTS, which means good to see. All right. Now, he's not going to tweet about it. Sorry. Post about individual stocks. But you get my drift, right?

I mean, look, he could post something like this. And this would be, I think, something that would have been very reasonable. What the heck's wrong with the stock market? Didn't you see that CPI yesterday? How about that PPI today? These are amazing numbers. We have growth without inflation. Or how about this one?

I hear that people are cutting back. They are scared and they're worried. I have to get these tariffs on because we are being abused by everyone. Just turn to my web page. You can see all the tariffs that they're forcing us to pay. If you have a better way to get these trade barriers down, tell our team. We'll refine them and put your name on it. As it is, I'm surprised Trump doesn't post, this is the first 10% correction in two years. Told you there'd be a lot of pain. What a terrible streak for Apple. They're killing that one. Doesn't seem right. Long term, we all use their phones. Look, I'm not trying to get some Pollyanna thing going.

I don't want to sugarcoat it. The stock market's bad. Ten percent correction. First one in a while. Trillion is lost. But if the White House only talks about the bad and not the good that is business, not the good that business does for our country, not the good that we should be proud of, then it's a distortion on his part. That's right. That's wrong.

In the end, the president's no pain, no gain attitude simply is not working. Periodically, we're going to have some down markets, sell-offs, corrections, bear markets. Look, they're fine because maybe sometimes they're deserving. We're going to see some stocks sink, even favorites like Apple, because they might have trouble making the quarter. I'm not saying that Trump has to link his performance to the stock market at all. That's a mistake. I am saying that he could afford to be a little more constructive. Constructive is good. Notice I didn't say positive. I said constructive.

Something uplifting that has the added advantage of being true is great. He's going to create his own spiral down otherwise. Now, if he's doing the tariffs to help solve the budget deficit, I don't know. How about some more reasons? Because that may not happen. If he's doing it to get companies to do more manufacturing in America, then he needs to explain that it is going to take years for this to play out. And in the interim, we've got some good things happening here, too.

There are plenty of ways to be negative. There are fewer ways to be positive. I want to accentuate the positive because when you're the president of the United States, you can create a negative mood that actually hurts the entire country, even if it's not intentional. Call it the Jimmy Carter syndrome for those of us who are old enough to know. Is it ridiculous to know what the comeback in CVS? I don't know. Is it silly to congratulate Costco from strong same-store sales number? Ah, maybe too granular. What matters, though, is that both the president and the Treasury Secretary seem hellbent on making us feel bad.

Oh, and saying that the tariffs will cause real pain. People don't understand what that means. They don't even know what a tariff is a lot of times. It is hard to understand. It's not necessary to do this.

Nor will they highlight anything good that's going on here. Makes people feel like everything's terrible, which isn't true. The White House can't control the entire economy, but they can't control the message. Maybe they shouldn't celebrate firing people or brandishing chainsaw like Elon Musk did. Instead, they should go quietly go about getting other countries to do better trading partners, be more honest with us, be less punitive to us and lay off people without

fanfare, even if you think they shouldn't be laying them off at all. So here's the bottom line. Every day there is something to celebrate in the business world because the business world is fantastic. We'd be in much better shape if the administration would highlight that. Believe me, the band doesn't need your help. It'll get the word out all by itself. Paul in Massachusetts. Paul.

Hey, Jim, I hope you're staying strong through these tough times. I know you've been through a lot worse times than this. I'm trying to be constructive and trying to help others. I've got powerful forces against me that shouldn't be. How can I help you? So I've been watching the stock for a little over a year now, and it's really just done nothing to go down the past year. But I was wondering if at these prices that it's at, if you think it's a good time to jump in. That stock is Cleveland Cliffs.

I know Cleveland Cliffs very well, and I know Lorenzo Don Salvas very well, the CEO. And I think they're doing a good job, but they don't have the balance sheet that I like for an individual investor, and that's you should be owning Nucor. No slight against Cleveland Cliffs. It's got a little too much risk because of that balance sheet, $7 billion in debt. Go with Nucor, cleaner balance sheet. Bob in New York. Bob. Hey, Jim. How are you doing today?

I struggle like everybody else, but I'm trying. How about you? Same here, brother. That's all we can do. Jim, a while back you indicated that this company was well-run and worth owning. I did my research, took a position in it, unfortunately at a much higher price. My question is, should I add to my position or should I liquidate it? The company is Brookfield Symbol BN.

No, that's a very, very well-run company. I'm not concerned about them. They are in what I call until just a few months ago. They were in every single space you want to be. I think you still want to be there. The stock has come down hard like many. I could chase out 10 stocks in my brain right now that look exactly like that, and they have the same balance sheet and the same earnings. Don't fret it. Long term. Denzel in California. Denzel.

Jimbo! Jimbo! Jimbo! Jimbo! Jimbo! Jimbo!

I'm a daddy to three little girls. I have to say, you just give me a sense of comfort when I watch you each and every day that I am grateful for, Jim. I have multiple businesses. Thank you. I try to be constructive. I want people to be able to save money so they can do more with their life. Otherwise, if I do that, I've done a good job. Powerful forces trying to get us. That doesn't happen. How can I help you?

You really have. My stock today, just wanted to speak about Affirm. It's been on a run lately. It's pulled back. I've lost a bit of the family's money. It was in the 80s not too long ago. It was in the 160s. Where do you think it's going to go? Where do you think my money is? Well, I mean, you know, this is one of those things we should just mention. This is a very good company, but it is a little risky. And I'll

And the fact is, is that the riskier companies are now coming down much faster than the other companies. But remember, this is run by Max Levchin. He has demonstrated a tremendous, tremendous ability to be able to not have losses that others would have with that portfolio. He's very good at his job, and I think you'll do just fine. And thank you for the kind comments, because on days like today, everybody needs them.

There's always something positive you can highlight or post about in the business world. That's what's so great about American business. We should be cheering it. We should cheer capitalism. We'd be better off if the administration would start focusing on some of those things and listen to me.

I'm Ed Money tonight. With the market back in sell-off mode, my hunt for buying opportunities continues. Tonight, I'm eyeing the banks to see if the former market drawings would be worth considering. Then with tariff talk weighing down the retailers, I'm looking for names you can buy off the rack. I'm eyeing also an under-the-radar AI player that I first heard about from you, Prey America. So stay with Prey.

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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Indeed.com slash mad money. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Indeed is all you need. Now that we're back in sell-off mode after yesterday's reprieve, I'm on the hunt for opportunities. Stocks outside the blast radius that have generally gotten cheaper as they've gone lower. It's impossible to game Washington here. You know that. But I think you can game the economy, if only because the Fed's likely to step in and then a real recession.

That's why tonight I want to circle back to another formerly beloved group that's now hated, and it's the bank stocks. These stocks cruised into the end of last year before rocketing higher in January after most reported strong fourth quarter results. Oh, but they've been hammered mercilessly since then based on the tariff-induced recession fears. At this point, the big banks, good or bad, weak or strong, are all down 16% to 22% from their recent highs. Whew!

Now, if you're genuinely concerned, OK, if you believe that we're headed for recession, then you should stay a heck of a way from these bank stocks. They don't work. But I don't buy the full gloom and doom scenario, even though things are certainly a lot worse than they were a month ago. I think a lot of it's manufactured gloom unintentionally. And if we're not headed for recession, then it's worth buying the bank's own weakness. And that's what we have. Let's start with Goldman Sachs. We own it for the Charitable Trust. We were betting we'd get a stronger economy. More important, the Trump's antitrust regulators, Goldman.

go a little bit easier on mergers than Biden's antitrust people. Initially, Goldman was a big winner for us running from the mid to high 500s, where we started buying, to an all-time high of 672 and change in mid-February.

But in less than a month, the stock's erasable. All of its gains falling back to $524 has changed as of today. Wow. Now, some of that's because the economy's clearly deteriorating. Some of it's because Wall Street's now worried that the second Trump administration might be a lot less pro-business than the first Trump administration. For all the talk of big mergers waiting in the wings, we've had the lowest number of deals in the first two months of the year since 2005. Companies are worried about tariff uncertainty. Plus, the plummeting stock market means fewer IPOs, which is another big source of business for Goldman.

So that's why the stock's come down 22% in the past few weeks. But as I told investing club members in our monthly call today, with such a large haircut, I think much of the risk may have already been baked, not all of it, baked into the stock price. When Goldman peaked last month, it was trading at 14.5 times this year's earnings estimates. Now it's trading at roughly 11.5 times this year's estimates, although the estimates probably come down. Why stick with Goldman in the face of this newfound uncertainty? That's an excellent question.

Here's my answer. Because I think it's too soon to give up on merger mania. President Trump could help by offering some stability on the trade front. That should encourage more M&A activity. It would also likely help stabilize the stock market. But it's not his job. It's not anybody's job. But it's not anyone's job to take it down either. And therefore, we'd have more IPOs. I know he's a true believer on tariffs. So am I. But he's also willing to change his mind on this stuff in the past, which would be good news for Goldman Sachs. By the way, I'm not willing to change my mind on tariffs. But that's all right. I'm not president.

Meanwhile, some of the softer economic data has caused long-term interest rates to come down, and that should be a boon to Goldman's debt underwriting, while also encouraging more mergers, because many of these deals are paid for with borrowed money.

Finally, I think Goldman's best in class sales and trading operation, where I once worked, could be in a position to make a killing amidst all this volatility that we've seen over the past few weeks. I'm right. Look, if I'm right about that and I'm pretty confident about the thesis because these Goldman professionals are the best at what they do, then that strength could offset some of the softer performance from the traditional investment banking side. So for all these reasons, I'm still comfortable with Goldman Sachs. But I do think the stock could go lower because the market's awful. All right. But I like to buy low. I like to sell high.

What else? Well, if you agree that the recession fears are overblown, then why not pick up some J.P. Morgan Chase, nation's largest and best-run bank? It's down almost 20% from its all-time highs in mid-February. J.P. Morgan could certainly get hit harder by a vicious economic slowdown. But again, I'm not yet in the camp that expects such a drastic scenario.

While there's been some yellow flags in the economic data recently, these problems are self-made and they can go away with some steadier policy from the White House. Even if we don't get that, a softer economy will give the Fed the green light to start cutting interest rates again, and that will eventually bail you out. Finally, I like Wells Fargo down here.

With these interest rates, it doesn't need cuts. Believe me, that's how these guys are set up. We own this for our travel trust. Been a long-term turnaround play under CEO Charlie Scharf, whom we greatly respect. Even though Scharf's now more than five years into the job, at this point, he's still actively reshaping Wells Fargo for the best.

shrinking or exiting businesses that weren't working well, mortgage lending, meaning the stronger ones like credit card lending, investment banking. Sharf's also made incredible progress cutting costs, transforming Wells Fargo to a much more profitable operation. The last big benefit that could still accrue to Wells would be a removal of the asset cap that's been in place since early 2018. As the bank gets further removed from its bad behavior under past leaders, not under Sharf, any major new scandals under Sharf, well, I'm not sure,

I think it's increasingly unlikely, and therefore I think that you would absolutely get this cap removed. And Wells Fargo, there's billions of dollars in costs they could take to reallocate, move from compliance efforts to activities. They have to spend a lot of money on compliance. I'm not against that. But I do think the bank would be much more profitable without the cap. Even with the stock's recent 16% pullback from its highs, Wells Fargo is still giving us a nearly 85% gain for the Chappell Trust. And while I've been bullish on this one for a long time, we're starting to get some new company today, a

Analysts at RBC, the guy who was on TV, upgraded the stock from sector-performed to out-performed because they're getting the asset. He thinks the asset cap's going to be removed, and Wells will generally do better now that Biden's tough bank regulators have been replaced.

So here's the bottom line. If you don't think that the cataclysm start to the Trump administration, the market volatility that's come with it fully pushes into recession, then the banks are a great place to go. I like Goldman Sachs. I like JP Morgan. I like Wells Fargo. But there are a lot of now discounted banks that you could be buying because, well, let's just say the postings have taken things to substantially lower prices. We have money. It's back after the break.

Coming up, retail is feeling the tariff impact, but are macro headwinds giving you a chance to buy high-quality names off the rack? Kramer offers up a price check next. Every day, thousands of Comcast engineers and technologists create connectivity solutions that change the way we work, live, and play. Like Kunle, a Comcast engineer who is focused on revolutionizing the in-home Wi-Fi experience today and for the next generation.

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Like I've been telling you all week, when the market rolls over like this, sometimes you got to hold your nose and you got to go bargain hunting because these are indiscriminate sell-offs and they create buying opportunities. Assume you know where to look. Look, I know it's a really hard thing to do. We bought some stocks today for the Chappell Trust for a couple of comments by the president about trade, and we were down on everything instantly. It is not reassuring, but it can still make you money, just not immediately.

Take retail, a group that's right in the blast radius of the rapidly escalating trade wars between the United States and our nominal allies. Consumers are terrified. We don't know what anything's going to cost. That makes people a lot less willing to go shopping. But I think this tariff frame of terror is temporary, at least the tariff part of it. Sooner or later, we're going to get used to it, actually, and there will be some kind of resolution. And then many of these retailers will bounce right back and will say, why didn't we do some buying? And that's what I'm talking about.

But you only want to pick the best, OK? And a best like Ralph Lauren. After roaring in the second half of last year and throughout January and early February, stocks suddenly have been obliterated, pulling back from 289 as high to 216 and change today. It's been a breathtakingly bad run. Maybe it should have been a 289. I don't think it should be 216. Why am I sticking my neck up for this apparel company when you have to presume you will get your head cut off right now?

Well, the fact is Ralph Lauren reported a fantastic quarter in early February. Not that long ago. Better than expected growth in every geography, rising gross margins.

While the company saw better than expected consumer demand across all channels, the direct-to-consumer business had same-store sales worth of 12% globally. That's really impressive. As Magnum sees it, consumers demanding these products directly from the source is a leading indicator of their, quote, global brand desirability, end quote. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the direct-to-consumer, with its great gross margins, makes up two-thirds of the business. So what was driving this stellar growth?

The good news is it's all about Ralph Lauren's core products, and they're classics. I mean, knit shirts, chinos, Oxford cloth shirts, select footwear accessories, all of which saw revenue growth in the low teens. Pretty extraordinary, right? These core products make up more than 70% of the business. As for the company, they refer to it as the high-potential business as another business that they have. Women's apparel, outerwear, handbags, and that grew an astounding 20% clip. That outpaced the company as a whole.

This past quarter included Ralph Lauren's performance over the holiday season, where they had an incredible Black Friday selling period, allowing them to pull back on promotional activity and sell more goods at full price. That's highly unusual. Most companies could not do that. Consumers were taking this stuff off the shelves before they even had time to slap a discount on it. Very impressive in an industry where there's always someone looking to steal your customers by undercutting you on price.

Can't do this. This is a classic company, classic look. Geographically, the company's also doing very well in North America. It's the largest market, 7% revenue growth. Europe and Asia did even better with revenue growth in the mid-teens. Of course, you could argue that none of this matters anymore. Ralph Lauren's latest quarter took place in a totally different world, one where we weren't worried about trade wars and plummeting consumer confidence presidential tweets. Certainly true. But it's also why the stock has just fallen 25% in over a month's time. It's on sale, not the goods, the stock.

Don't forget, on the latest conference call, management noted they currently anticipate a minimal annual impact from tariffs. Although, again, that was before things started spiraling out of control. Still, I believe Ralph Lauren is much more likely to make a comeback than your average retail stock. We know that from the last quarter that their brand is as culturally relevant as ever.

While the stock got hit today on more negative consumer commentary, from this time for American Eagle, you've got to keep in mind that Ralph Lauren's target is a lot wealthier than the average consumer. They're less likely to get hit by the current environment. Ralph Lauren's close, the look, a lot more timeless than American Eagle, don't you think? And that's why I think it'll be one of the first retail stocks to bounce back. Next up, how about the gap?

which also owns Old Navy, Banana Public, Athletic. We've been speaking with CEO Richard Dixon regularly for some time now, and he always seems to tell a good story, doesn't he, while backing it up with good numbers. The stock has repeatedly popped on earnings, but the market seems to have a short memory with the gap because it always ends up coming back down before the next quarter.

Now, we spoke to Dixon just last week after he delivered a really terrific fourth quarter earnings report, posting better than expected revenues, 16 cent earnings beat off a 38 cent basis. The market even liked the guidance, although it came in a bit light, tough to do in this environment. As a result, the stock shot up almost 19 percent the next day. Gap roared for a good reason, because there was a lot to like about the quarter. The company picked up market share for the eighth consecutive quarter, gaining or maintaining share across all four of the brands. The standout of the quarter was the quarter gap brand.

posting same-store sales growth of 7%. That was extraordinary. I haven't seen that in a long time here. That was way higher, by the way, than the 2.3% that the analysts were looking for. As Richard Dixon told us when he came on the show, the gap is back in the cultural conversation. You can see it from the numbers. The company's largest segment, Old Navy, also did pretty well, with better-than-expected same-store sales and the eighth straight quarter of market share gains. They're doing very well in denim, which we know is very hot.

Even Banana Republic is doing well, something he promised and then he delivered, 4% same-store sales growth. Wall Street was looking for flat numbers. Extraordinary. I've spoken with Dixon in the past about reinvigorating this beaten-down brand, and he's clearly doing something right. Look out for the White Lotus collaboration they just released. It's as good as the show, and they got a winner.

Athleta's struggling a bit relative to Gap's other brands, but it's already the third biggest name in the women's activewear space. And given Dixon's track record with turning around his other brands, I actually am inclined to believe when he says that he feels that positive about the Athleta's prospect. Certainly wouldn't bet against this guy at this point. You know what? I think they're taking a share from Lululemon. About the trade wars.

Won't President Trump's volatile trade policy crush the gap like it's crushing everybody else in the business? Look, this company gets less than 10% of their products from China with less than 1% coming from Canada and Mexico. On the cost side, they're fine. The only worry is that the trade war wrecks consumer confidence and crushes the entire economy, which does seem like a possibility at this point.

But as I said repeatedly, I think the Federal Reserve will start cutting rates at that point in order to prevent a recession. When I asked Dixon about the concerns surrounding the health of the consumer, he emphasized that what Gap's been doing to reinvigorate their brands is resonating with customers. And their ability to gain market share in a declining industry makes him feel pretty confident about the future of the business. I think he's probably right, even if the company gets hit with some near-term turbulence. I like it.

Here's the bottom line. As long as you don't think the entire economy is about to fall off a cliff, and there's still some of us who feel that way, then some of these high-quality retailers are looking darn cheap at these levels. Ralph Lauren and The Gap are my faves right now. And yes, if you buy them and the president basically assures you that the forecast is paying, there's not much you can do short-term. But longer-term, you will do fine. I just can't predict when longer-term starts. Let's take some calls. Let's go to Garrett in Texas. Garrett.

Thank you so much for taking my call, Mr. Kramer. It's a pleasure. Thank you, Gary. Thanks for calling. So my question is about the New York Times, ticker NYT. Now, I know it's a newspaper company, but they have a tremendous brand, strong digital presence. Their daily games are popular. They all be athletic. Can they grow in the future or are they slowly becoming obsolete?

OK, there are people, not absolutely, but there are people who are very worried about the advertising market. I'm trying to circle the way I do like subscription business, by the way, and they're subscription business driven. This stock has come down. There were a lot of questions about the last quarter. So here's what I can say about it. I read the last quarter conference call. I thought it was fine, but the interpretation was that it wasn't strong enough. I'm going to ask that we wait another another quarter before we can make a determination. Let's go to Marcos in Arizona. Marcos. Booyah, Jim. Thanks for taking my call. Thank you for calling.

Yes, sir. Hey, Casey's General Stores has been forming well. Do you see further upside potential for the stock or do you believe it's barely? I'll tell you, there are a couple of other retailers and convenience stores that are in a similar situation to them. Right now, they're all pretty funky, even though the businesses are good. I have to again counsel. We need to wait another quarter before we can be sure that the people will interpret the good news as positive.

as positive instead of negative, which is what's going on right now. Thank you for calling. Now, if you don't think the economy is about the full part, then I think it's worth looking at Ralph Lauren and Gap at these levels. Much more made money. He stuck me on the Zeta Global. So tonight I'm sitting down with the CEO, learn more about the company. I think it's pretty interesting. Then I'm offering up the Intel on Intel's new CEO. Completely forgotten about in the disaster that is today. And of course, all your calls rapid fire in tonight's edition of The Lightening. So stay with Pringles.

Last week, we got a call from Vince in my homestead, New Jersey, who wanted to know about an advertising technology company called Zeta Global. Now, he stumped me with that, but I promised to come back and do some homework. Tonight, though, I'm going to do one better, because Zeta Global saw my lack of commentary and offered to come on the show to introduce themselves directly, which, by the way, is the same proposition I'll make to anyone when you're in the light round and I get stumped.

As much as I like doing homework, it's always better to hear it right from the horse's mouth. So let's check in with David Steinberg. He's the co-founder, chairman, CEO of Zaden Group. Mr. Steinberg, welcome to Miamati. Jim, thank you so much for having me. Well, it's terrific that you're here. I candidly did not know you, and yet I should have. You've

I would say you fly under my radar screen, but you don't fly certainly under the radar screen of all the big advertising agencies. And you certainly don't for a lot of the big customers, Fortune 100 customers who are trying to reach people that they haven't for a reasonable price. Good selling proposition. You know, when you're out there, especially in today's world, where you're helping large enterprises to lower their marketing and CRM costs by an average of 50 percent.

You know, CMOs are returning your calls. And as you said, 44 percent of the Fortune 100 largest companies already use Zeta. OK, so how are they knowing you and how how does they come to you?

So they either go through an RFP process or we have a big sales force, right? And we go out and we sell. And we've been very, very successful as a company. By way of example, we now have reported the last four years in a row an organic compounded growth rate of greater than 30%. Yeah, I saw that in your deck, and you're very transparent. I was telling Ben Stoto, who works with me, I said, geez, those are good numbers. Now, how about this for a little more...

of the ethereal, conversational, inspirational, authentic, friendly, clever. Describes you?

Wow. That's very nice. Could you tell my children? Well, you're not subversive, callous, flippant, disparaging, careless, uppity or casual. I'm getting this right from the deck. I'm not making it up. But you're talking about who you guys are. So you do have a different ethos from some of the larger shops. Yeah. So we look at this in a very different way. Right. So we look at our clients as partners. We have five hundred and twenty seven scaled global clients that depend on us to, you know,

help them with their marketing in CRM. And we think of ourselves as a very high level platform. Okay. So let's talk about the idea of the walled garden of Google or Facebook versus who you'll be able to reach because there's a bigger world out there.

Well, so first of all, we plug into Google and Facebook, too. So we're able to target into the walled gardens. But the biggest value I think we bring to the table is the democratization of the open web. Because our data cloud is so robust, we're able to target people across a trillion pages of content. Now, once you get out of the walled gardens,

The costs are much lower, and it allows us to help enterprises get to the exact same person they might have seen in a walled garden, both in the walled garden and addressed outside of it, and connected television and email and mobile. We're able to address pretty much every digital methodology. We're big believers that data is king. Yes. How many pieces, how many, I guess you could say, how many people do you have that you have data on?

So we have 550 million people globally that are in our data cloud with 245 million in the United States alone with an average of 5,000 to 7,000 data attributes per person. So I can't do that math in my head for elements, but it's a lot. Now, let me ask you, though, that's fantastic for...

I understand all the big people obviously want that. But can someone tap into you who's just a medium-sized company or a small-sized company and wants to be able to be every bit as good as the big companies? I think that's a big uptick.

upside opportunity for us in the future today we focus on call it the 10,000 largest companies out there so one of the things I like to talk about Jim is we have 527 global scaled clients today they're gonna spend a hundred billion dollars on marketing this year last year I had 1% wallet share at the middle of my range this year I've got to get to 1.25 percent right and I

I think we can get to five or 10% of that hundred billion in the years to come. Okay. So who directly are you competing with? Is it Salesforce or is it Trade Desk? So, yes. In fact, one of the confusing things about our business is when we founded it, the vision was to put everything that a marketer needed in one user interface and one reporting infrastructure, right? So on one side of the house for CRM, you're competing with Salesforce, Oracle, Adobe. Right.

On the other side of the house, you're competing with the trade desk. So people say to me all the time, why is the story so confusing? And it's like, are you marketing technology? Are you advertising technology? Are you data? Are you AI? Are you activation? And the answer is yes.

So for us, it's been, it's interesting. What's made us exceptional with customers. And if you look at our growth rates, customers are buying our products at an accelerated pace. It's been confusing and it's created a dislocation in the stock for Wall Street. Well, it has. And I know that there's also a short report out about you, which talks about how, I don't know, some sort of conflicting deal. I don't want to minimize anything short, long, but I was kind of stunned that the stock, uh,

it was not higher given the fact what we know about your compound growth, but it is a harder, harder story. And by the way, Jeff Green's trade desk story is a hard story and had to work very, very difficult on that. I even went over to the antitrust department, you know, Jonathan Cantor's brief against Google to try to understand what you do, but it would seem like that you're kind of a,

a very good exhibit A against the idea that there's too much, that Google's all powerful because you in many ways bust Google. Yeah, listen, one of the things I talk about, there are 512 publicly traded technology companies in America. Eight of us have grown over four years, 2021 through 2025, by greater than 20% on a compounded growth rate. Just eight.

And the other and expanded free cash flow margins in that same four years, the other seven trade in an average of 13 times revenue and 90 times EBITDA. We're trading at like three and a half times revenue. So I think the opportunity once we get through this short report. Right. Because these guys can make up anything about anybody, anytime are awesome.

Our audit committee brought in a forensic accounting firm and one of the top law firms in Washington, D.C. on data policy. They audited us for our financials and our data, and we just filed a totally clean 10K, no

comments and our audit opinion from D&T. Well, I'm glad you brought that up. I want people to understand, do all their homework. There's ample stuff, a lot of supports, but also some great decks from the company all available. That's David Steinberg. He's the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Zeta Global. Thank you, David. Thank you, Jim. Mad Money's back here for the

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 lightning round. We're going to start with the lightning round.

And then the lightning round is over. Are you ready, Skeetie? Daddy's on the lightning round. Let's go to Savita in California. Savita. Thank you. Hi, Jim. Thank you for taking my call. My pleasure. I'm a long-time watcher and first-time caller. Okay. My question is regarding two companies, Illumina, ticker symbol I-L-M-N, and

Well, Illumina is a challenge company, and I don't really care for it. I do prefer Thermo Fisher, TMO. They do a better job. And we own Daner for the Chapel Trust, and here we're betting on a management change because right now that company's run much more poorly than it should be. Let's go to Phillip in Minnesota. Phillip. Yes. Go ahead, Phillip. Hello, Phil. Hi. Hi. Go ahead, Phillip. What stock do you have?

I'm looking at Archer Aviation. Well, keep looking, but do not press the button because in this kind of market, that company is an invitation to your funeral. Let's go Craig in Tennessee. Craig. Booyah, Jim, from Nashville, Tennessee. All right, man. Good to have you. Good real estate market. What's going on?

Got a position in a nuclear stock that I'd like your opinion on. It's Nano Energy, ticker symbol N-N-E. I think you should sell Nano Energy. I think the first time we'll see any nuclear new in this country is 2033, and that will be done by GE Brnova, if it's lucky. Let's go to Jonathan, Pennsylvania. Jonathan.

Hey, a Bucks County Booyah on a great club meeting today, Jim. Holy cow. Thank you very much. And a Bucks County Booyah right back to you. My favorite county and where I try to live and will be there very soon. What's going on? There you go. Hey, you and Regina can debate whether or not you have matured, but you have made all of us more mature investors. There's no debate on that.

Well, you missed my immature moment earlier this evening, but that's fine, too. What's up? Hey, here you go. Hey, I got a company. It's right at the rule of 40. There are some cross-currents. The positives are there are more medical device, you know, health care procedures. They get about 30 percent of revenue from overseas, but they're having a little bit of slowing growth and decreasing return on invested capital and free cash flow. I want to know what you think about Starisks.

Geez, I always liked Star. So I think that that's just a great kind of just a regular everyday health care company that I think should do very well. I didn't know about the slowing. I think it's just a strong company and I'd be a buyer of it and go Bucks County, although I did not go to Central CBW or. Well, I went to Springfield. Let's go to Jack in Ohio. Jack. Hey, thanks for taking my call, Jimmy. Of course.

Are you thinking about adding this one to my dividend income holdings? Okay. T-S-L-X-6-3 specialty lending. Okay, now the problem with that company, I've looked at it, and there's a bunch of others that have a similar yield. I don't know what they really own, so therefore I can't really opine on it. You sound like you know it. If you know it, be my guest. But I don't know what's in the portfolio, so I'm going to have to take a pass. Let's go to Annette in New York. Annette. Oh, great. Go ahead, Annette.

Do I have to mute my phone? Oh, you sound great to me. No, I don't need my phone. I need the TV. Should I put it on mute? No, no, just give me the stock in that and we're in good shape. You're on with me. Oh, hello. Hey, how's it going? I didn't know I was on. How great to talk to you. I didn't know it was in there. Okay. All right. Sure. What's the stock? I'm calling on Lamb Research.

I like lamb very much. Right now, it's in the crosshairs of a lot of different geopolitical concerns. It's one of those stocks that I think is deeply involved with the negativity right now. It's a shame because Tim Archer is not a negative guy and they are a fabulous company. I would own the stock. Let's go to Ellie in New Jersey. Ellie. Hi, Kramer. Booyah. Booyah, Ellie. What's happening?

Well, I'm calling because I have a stock in my portfolio, Arista. I've had it for quite a while now. It's a long term. And it's given me some really nice gains, especially after the split. No, Arista has been an amazing stock for many years. And that's because Jay Shreve, you all are such a fantastic executive. Right now, it's caught up in the data center negativity.

At this point, this stock is now down 50 straight points. I'm going to bet on J Street here. I would buy it. Let's go to Juan in Florida. Juan. Hi, Jim. Thank you so much for having me, sir. How are you today? All right. How are you? Great. Great. Thanks. So I was calling regarding the Vistra Corporation symbol, VST. OK, if you believe that the data center is coming to the end of the world, why do we need more power? Why do we need more utilities? If you think it's OK, then I think at this point I would actually pull the trigger on Vistra.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, Intel stock is soaring after it announced a new CEO. Kramer shares his Intel on the leadership change. Next.

Don't miss Mad Money every night at 6 p.m. Eastern. Plus, join the CNBC Investing Club and stick with Kramer around the clock.

You may not know the name Lipu Tan, the new CEO of Intel, but you should. He's widely considered to be one of the most capable CEOs in America, a semiconductor star with a lot of friends in the industry. He previously worked at Cadence Design Systems, a software company that designs electronic design automation. Basically, they help you make complicated chips.

He saved Keynes. It was in deep trouble. He transformed into an extremely profitable company. Under his leadership, this thing went from a billion-dollar company to nearly $50 billion company. That's right, 50-fold. His appointment to run Intel is why the stock rallied more than 14% today, leading the S&P 500. Does that move make sense? Listen, I've been extremely negative about Intel, a company I once worshipped, mostly because it was sorely lacking in rigorous leadership. But I'll say this. If anyone can turn around Intel, it would be Lip Bhutan.

If you want to know what he's like, go watch his acceptance speech on YouTube when he won the SIA's Robert Noyce Award for the best semiconductor executive in 2022. Robert Noyce was a revered founder of Intel, regardless of one of the best executives who ever lived. That speech showed he understood the new world that was coming. The world created, by the way, by Jensen Wong in video, a friend of his, the world generator of artificial intelligence.

The speech was brilliant. The problem is that Intel is a troubled company like Cadence used to be, and Intel is an ugly balance sheet. Litbu must have messed, but he's got to address that immediately. He will. He understands finance very well. But can he get Intel to catch up with AMD and NVIDIA? That's what he has to do. And he has to move fast. He made that clear.

But can you really make up the ground loss from years of wayward leadership at Intel? For that, I say work in progress. This is not like when Brian Nicol came from Chipotle to turn around Starbucks and the stock flew up. Starbucks had some low-hanging fruit, including real throughput issues, right up Nicol's alley. I think that rally made sense. We sold some Starbucks to the child, which is where it should have gone back.

Then there's Elliot Hill, who replaced John Donahoe at Nike. Donahoe's undid a perfectly good brick-and-mortar strategy in favor of direct-to-consumer, something that didn't work because people like to try on expensive shoes in person rather than buying them just online. He didn't do much innovation either. During Donahoe's tenure, Adidas, New Balance, Hoka, and on and on really came on. Still, I think that Hill and old Nike hand has a shot at restoring the luster. Plus, Nike still has cachet as worldwide distribution. Donahoe didn't destroy the brand. I wouldn't bet against Hill.

I think that LitBoo has a much more monumental task in Intel because its predecessors really did drop the ball. The semiconductor world moves really fast. It's an extremely competitive world, and there's no niche left unexploited, at least not that we know of.

But maybe that's the real opportunity here. There might be something he knows, some killer idea that the rest of us haven't been able to identify. Maybe his contacts with ideas would be willing to work with him to turn the place around. Maybe there are people within Intel who haven't been able to flourish under the leadership of Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO. All these distinct possibilities. But as I see it, we've got to wait. I don't yet see the path to restoring Intel's former greatness. However, I have been extremely negative about this company's prospects. Ah,

I'm no longer negative. It's time to be constructive on Intel. It's time to watch and wait. Even though they've got problems, they finally got the right man for the job. After years of getting it wrong, the board did something smart, and I say, well done. Like I said, there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise you I'll find it just for you right here on MadMoney. I'm Jim Cramer, and I'll see you tomorrow.

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

You should not treat any opinion expressed by Jim Cramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Cramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash madmoneydisclaimer.

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