We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Discussed These 12 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed.

On Thursday, Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, described the 145% duty on China as so extreme that it essentially acts as an embargo rather than a conventional tariff.

“We now have 145% tariff on Chinese goods. Now, a number that high frankly isn’t really a tariff. It’s more of an embargo. Almost nobody’s gonna pay that much of a markup. It’s a recipe for losing money.”

READ ALSO 10 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently and Jim Cramer Talked About These 8 Stocks

Cramer said that he believes Trump is more frustrated with prior administrations for what he sees as allowing China to take advantage of U.S. trade policy than he is with President Xi Jinping himself, who Trump continues to speak of respectfully. While Cramer acknowledged that he sympathizes with Trump’s objective, he warned that the country is not prepared to handle the fallout. “As a nation, shamefully, we’ve gotten addicted to cheap Chinese imports,” he said

“I think what we saw today was the beginning of a sorting period between those that have no China exposure and those that do. Unfortunately, those that do employ a lot of people and are excellent companies, but they may not be excellent enough to make it through this new environment and that is a real shame.”

Cramer emphasized that while he believes the U.S. can function without economic ties to China, doing so would significantly raise domestic costs, drive up unemployment, and force reliance on other global partners. The stakes, he said, are enormous. “Yes, we have to take them on now or never,” he stated, but he cautioned that the consequences will involve more pain than the public is likely prepared to accept.

“So the bottom line: Is it worth it? Depends. I think it’s worth some temporary pain to drive a hard bargain though and get a more favorable trade deal out of the Chinese government. But it’s not worth it to go back… [from] $439 billion in imports to zero. Unfortunately, I’m actually thinking that might be where we’

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 12 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 10. We listed the stocks in the order that Cramer mentioned them. We also provided hedge fund sentiment for each stock as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

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).

Aerial view of a Waste Management Transfer Station, highlighting the scale of its operations.

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 67

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) provides environmental services that include waste pickup, recycling, landfill operations, and producing renewable energy from landfill gas. It also handles materials processing, recycling brokerage, and offers construction and remediation services. Mentioning the company, Cramer said, “Utility, Verizon, perfect Coca-Cola, Waste Management. Yeah, these are timeless.”

Diamond Hill Capital stated the following regarding Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“As valuations have continued rising and the economic cycle has gotten relatively long in the tooth, we’ve thought carefully about where and how we are exposed to more cyclical stocks. As such, we initiated just three new positions in Q4: Berkshire Hathaway, Aon and Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM).

Waste Management is one of the US’s largest providers of waste-collection services. Its leading footprint of landfill assets provides the company with long-term pricing power. Further, Waste Management has invested heavily in recent years in recycling and renewable natural gas projects — which we believe the market is underappreciating given the value these investments will create as the projects wind down and come online.”

Overall, WM ranks 8th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of WM 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. 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 WM 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.