Philip Morris International (PM): Jim Cramer Believes There's No Other Like It - "The Number One Story of All Time Is the Breakup of Phillip Morris"

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Says Bears Got ‘Pantsed’ & Discusses These 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed.

In his recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed the impact of markets extending their rally after President Trump’s remarks suggested that his administration was de-escalating its showdown with China. To further assuage market concerns, Trump also asserted that he had no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Cramer remarked:

“Well I think that if you go back to Monday’s stock market, that was one of the worst days in my career that I’ve ever seen. I had that comparisons to 1932, a lot of people just saying let’s just forget about this, let’s turn it off, I don’t want to be in this anymore. David, there seemed to me on Monday to be a belief that we’re really on our own, do whatever you want, tariff away, we don’t need anybody, interest rates going the wrong way, gold going the wrong way. It was just a hideous day.”

Given that Cramer has interacted with the markets in one form or the other before most of us were born, naturally his remarks about Monday being the worst of his career raised eyebrows. Co-host David Faber refused to believe it and asked Cramer whether he really did think that it was the all-time worst day. In response, Cramer clarified that it was the worst day in terms of despair. “No, because in terms of despair. Despair. Level of despair. . .Just saying the level of despair on Monday when I left,” he said.

Cramer also outlined that those who had predicted that a bear market was in play were proven wrong. “Everyone said bear market rally yesterday, well you know those people have been pantsed,” he said. “There was a guy on this morning . .was talking about tariffs, you know I was really hammered. I said jeez you know it’s early in the morning,” Cramer added.

However, even though the bears were ‘pantsed,’ it didn’t mean that the performance was stellar. Commenting on JPMorgan calling recent market events a wholesale divorce from dollar-denominated assets, Cramer outlined: “I felt like I could go very easily into pretty much any market in the world and be better than ours.”

The CNBC host also shared that Treasury Secretary Bessent appears to be driving the policy, as for now. According to him: “I think that Bessent, Treasury Secretary Bessent, is regarded as being at the tiller, right now. And he understands the stock market. And there’s, Navarro, who understands death by China.”

Commenting on the link between Bessent and President Trump, Cramer shared:

“Look obviously he [Bessent] just knows there’s some connection between the stock market and the country. And I know that the President, first go around, regarded as being really important. In the second go around he’s just said basically it’s an abstraction even to the point where I can do tariffs higher than Smoot-Hawley and not care what happens.”

Our Methodology

To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on April 23rd.

For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 102

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world. As stocks were sold during the tariff selloff earlier this month, Cramer wistfully pointed at the demand inflexibility of the firm’s products. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)’s shares are up by 40% year-to-date, which reflects the somewhat defensive nature of the stock. Here are Cramer’s latest thoughts about Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM):

“Jeez I think Phillip Morris if they didn’t sell what they sell, by the way, you know that’s the number one story of all time is the breakup of Phillip Morris. It’s more than all the other stocks. Yes, in the last ten years it’s NVIDIA. But the longest CAGR is Phillip Morris. . .”

Overall, PM ranks 3rd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of PM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this 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.