Target Corporation (TGT) - "Walmart's Coming On - Target Better Stay Relevant," Warns Cramer

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Reveals The ‘North Star’ Of Investing & Discusses These 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer recently discussed.

In a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer discussed recent employment data which covered nonfarm payrolls,  the unemployment rate, and other details. The figures revealed that nonfarm payrolls grew by 177,000 in April which handily beat economists’ forecast of 133,000. Additionally, despite worries about a growth slowdown, recessionary fears, and high interest rates, April’s unemployment rate sat unchanged at 4.2%.

Cramer gushed about the data and shared that it was the only data that mattered when it came to considering whether there would be a recession. He commented:

“Really strong numbers and it’s one of those this right now the President has that, uh, Truth Social squib, about the Fed should cut. I think the difficulty is a positive difficulty. These are really good numbers and it’s not like they’re red hot in terms of inflation. I like the fact that a lot of them we haven’t seen layoffs yet, from severance, remember from government, that was minus 9,000. The healthcare’s up, it’s just a good number! I mean, it’s a number you expect and like to see when we’re, you know kind of worried about a recession! It’s a take the recession off the table number!”

While the CNBC host admitted that some regions of the economy were weak, he nevertheless remained optimistic:

“We’re supposed to have a pullback. We’re just not getting it. Look there are spots that are weak but they tend to be aligned with outfits that aren’t doing that well. . . I like these numbers, they make me feel like that the President should have said, uh, it’s going to make it so that we might not have to cut rates but hang in there. Maybe things will not be so good so. I mean what does he, don’t box yourself Mr. President. . .”

Another theme that Cramer has discussed quite a lot in his morning show this year is the rally in the European stock market. In an April appearance, he remarked “I think a lot of people say you know what, I keep sending money over there, and I win. So I’m gonna keep sending money over there. Those economies are being juiced by a wartime. . you know they’re spending a lot.” This time around, he pointed out that the US was back. “You know everyone’s still talking about the big European rally, said Cramer. He added: “Hello? It’s been a US rally! Let’s stop it already. That European rally it occurred, dynamite, I’m going over to Europe, I’ll check it out myself.”

Cramer then continued to gush about the jobs report. In fact, he called the reports the North Star of investing:

“I hate to be so simpleminded, but I’ve done, for one of my books I did this thing about what is the one statistic that you need to know. Over the past forty years. And the statistic is, this Friday. Once a month, you need to know this number. And if this number is true, and you have good employment growth, then you can just take it to the next three weeks. . . .take anything negative off the table because this is the number that is the North Star.”

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 May 2nd.

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).

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 56

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) is one of the biggest discount store operators in America. Despite the fact that such retailers typically do well in periods of economic uncertainty, the shares are down by 28% year-to-date. Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) has struggled due to falling sales and competition from larger retailers such as Walmart. Cramer’s previous comments about the firm have remarked that it could be hurt by tariffs. Here are his latest thoughts:

“No there are issues with what’s going to happen and it’s another reason, uh and I’m a small business champion, but another reason to buy Amazon. Because Amazon has, they have scale. Walmart has scale. When you talk to Amazon they say listen, we got, Walmart’s coming on.

“The biggest win here is if they have a, no one does well in a recession. But this maybe a Costco country. A Walmart country. And Amazon country. And then nothing. It is a possibility that we have a big three and yes, CVS will do, stay in the game because of Aetna. But you know what I’m thinking about the Nordstorm’s of the world, the Kohl’s of the world, what Brian Cornell has to hope at Target is that he stays relevant. And doesn’t have too much China. These companies cannot negotiate. And Amazon can basically tell China, here’s the way it’s going to be guys.”

Overall, TGT ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer recently discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of TGT 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 TGT 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.