Jim Cramer on Starbucks Corporation CEO Brian Niccol: ‘I’d Still Much Rather Bet With Him

We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer Recently Talked About These 11 S&P 500 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) stands against the other stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about.

On Monday, Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, took a closer look at how the S&P 500 performed in January, highlighting both the successes and the setbacks, and commented on the ongoing tariffs activity. Reflecting on the market’s early response to President Trump’s policies in 2025, Cramer noted that while January was generally a good month for stocks, some of the biggest gainers have since experienced significant pullbacks. According to Cramer, it is important to evaluate both the winners and losers as the year progresses.

Furthermore, Cramer mentioned that his family, with substantial business dealings in Mexico, took Trump’s campaign promise of imposing tariffs on the country seriously, while others did not. While the implementation of a 25% tariff has been delayed by a month, Cramer pointed out that its impact remains real. If enacted, the tariff could become a serious barrier to profitability for businesses on both sides of the border.

What Cramer did not expect, however, was the response from Mexico’s newly elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum took a bold step by deploying 10,000 National Guard troops to address illegal immigration and combat the influx of fentanyl into the country. In exchange, she secured a temporary one-month pause on the tariff.

“I think this opens the door for a change in trade policy, the one that’s much more targeted, now, that’s much smarter than the tit-for-tat approach that China adopted, one that could possibly preserve a lot of commerce we have with Mexico, our biggest trading partner.”

Cramer believes that this approach could help preserve the vital trade relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, a relationship worth $807 billion in 2023. Cramer also cautioned that while this adjustment may help avoid an immediate economic downturn, there’s a risk of unintended consequences. If Mexico’s economy does slip into recession due to the tariffs, Cramer warned, the resulting economic strain could trigger a surge in illegal immigration.

“Bottom line, pretty disparate group of winners and losers if you ask me. Very different from 2024. So why don’t we see how things play out for the rest of the year?”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 11 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on February 3. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the third quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.

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Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Is Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) the Best Dividend Stock on Robinhood?

A barista pouring freshly brewed coffee from an espresso machine to a cup in a bustling cafe.

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 76

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), a part of his trust’s portfolio, was mentioned by Cramer as it was the 6th best S&P 500 performer in January.

“Hey, by the way, let’s have an honorable mention for Charitable Trust holding Starbucks, that was sixth in the S&P 500 last month. It gained 18% primarily because of a big move last Wednesday after the company reported a better-than-feared quarter with positive commentary from new CEO, Brian Niccol, formerly of Chipotle. While the stock moved a lot since Niccol was announced its new CEO last August, I’d still much rather bet with him than bet against him even up here.”

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is a prominent global brand known for roasting, marketing, and selling coffee, offering a diverse selection of beverages, coffee beans, and food items at its stores. Cramer recently discussed how the company’s stock dropped to $77 before announcing a leadership change.

With the departure of the previous CEO, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) brought in Brian Niccol, the executive who had successfully turned around Chipotle during its challenging times. Cramer noted that once Niccol took the helm, the stock surged. While Cramer initially believed that Starbucks might face another downturn, the stock kept rising and never looked back, reaching the high $90s and continuing its upward trajectory. He added:

“In fact, when the company reported this week, the stock powered ever higher to the point where this very big… 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… Here’s the answer: For Starbucks, the coffee might be good, but Starbucks, the company was really poorly run and Starbucks the stores? Disastrous.”

Overall SBUX ranks 6th on our list of the S&P 500 stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about. While we acknowledge the potential of SBUX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SBUX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

This article was originally published by a finance.yahoo.com . Read the Original article here. .