Jim Cramer's Cruise Comeback - Why the Seas Are Smooth for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL)

We recently published a list of Was Jim Cramer’s Call Right on These 10 Stocks? In this article, we are going to take a look at where Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 12 months ago.

Back then, the show was heavily focused on the biggest media companies and how Jim Cramer ranked each one. He also discussed some of the biggest losers and winners of the post-pandemic stock market.

In the most recent episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer took a closer look at the current status of the Magnificent Seven stocks, offering insight into both their market positioning and how the White House’s stance seems to be shifting.

“First, I can’t be sure that Trump has changed, but I do believe that he’s never lost sight of the markets and he watches the business channels.”

READ ALSO: Was Jim Cramer Right About These 13 Stocks? And Did Jim Cramer Nail or Miss These 14 Stocks?

Cramer emphasized that his analysis is not political, rather, it is a “clear-eyed” assessment of what the president aims to achieve. According to Cramer, Trump is pushing for more jobs and manufacturing within the U.S., even if it means sacrificing access to cheap goods from overseas. Turning his attention to the Magnificent Seven stocks, Cramer said:

“Everybody knows the Magnificent Seven is not so magnificent anymore… But as I said over and over again, you simply can’t count these stocks out.”

He explained that these stocks still hold significant value despite their significant drops from their peak highs. For Cramer, these companies are not to be dismissed lightly. He mentioned that six of them are part of his Charitable Trust, making them especially relevant to his analysis. He noted that some serious damage had been done to the group.

As Cramer continued his commentary, he pointed out that analyst sentiment toward the Magnificent Seven has become more positive after a year of skepticism. However, he highlighted that only Amazon and Nvidia have truly favorable setups at the moment. For the others, it remains to be seen what the future holds. Regardless of their uncertain outlooks, Cramer noted one important factor common to all these companies: as their stock prices fall, they actually become more affordable.

“Their stocks actually truly do get cheaper as they go lower, and that’s more than I can say for many others that have held up well during this exceedingly difficult period.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 10 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money on April 4, 2024. We then calculated their performance from April 4^th, 2024, market close to March 26^th, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.

Please note that this article mentions Jim Cramer’s previous opinions and may not account for any changes to his opinions regarding the stocks that are mentioned. It is primarily an examination of how his previously provided opinions have panned out.

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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), one of the world’s largest cruise line operators, was held up in the episode as a dramatic COVID recovery story. Cramer noted how the stock rebounded sharply after short sellers bet incorrectly on a permanent decline back then:

“Now have you noticed for instance that the cruise line stocks have been among the best performers for the last 18 months? Especially Royal Caribbean. […]

If you go back and look at the bottom of the covid bear market, you’ll see some owner refinancings for Carnival representing real bankruptcy risk. At the same time the cruise CEOs were telling you not to worry as the months were on because customers always come back to cruising. Too great a bargain for them to ignore.

Oh the hedge funds didn’t believe that though. They shortened the cruise line stocks endlessly and mercilessly but it turned out that the CEOs were right the customers did come back and then the shorts were overrun.

Royal Caribbean Cruises goes from $37 when the pandemic truly began near the end of 2022 to $135. Now that’s the short sellers covering because of the broken covid trade.”

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) has gained an impressive 62.81% since that episode, validating Cramer’s view on its post-COVID rebound.

Jim Cramer remains a fan of the stock and gave his view on it on the 12^th of March after talking to the company’s CEO:

“What else in travel’s worth taking a look at?… It’s tough for me to square the heinous action with what we just heard from Jason Liberty, the CEO of Royal Caribbean. When he came on the show last week, first, Liberty confirmed that its… consumers perceive Royal Caribbean cruises as a better value than a land-based vacation, reinforcing my view the cruise lines can still do fine even in a softer economy. Second, he cited its own bookings and on-ship spending data from recent voyages saying matter-of-factly, ‘that cash register continues to ring and be consistent.’

Finally, looking at longer term, Liberty noted that, this is so important, understand this major, major ratio, the new supply, meaning new cruise ships, should continue to be limited for the next few years, which is positive for the entire industry’s pricing power. At one point you see the pricing power go down when they have a lot of ships coming. Plus, altogether, I feel really okay about the cruise lines, Royal Caribbean in particular. This had a 25% pullback from its recent high, stock now sells for a very… undermining 14 times earnings. I like that.”

Overall, RCL ranks 5th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 12 months ago. While we acknowledge the potential of RCL 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than RCL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

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