Investment guru Jim Cramer recently suggested four companies that can benefit from the coronavirus outbreak.
“I don’t want to profiteer off an epidemic that’s already killed 2,000 people, but we need to acknowledge how this coronavirus outbreak is changing the world,” the “Mad Money” host said on CNBC show.
“And, yes, some companies are benefiting from that, because they benefit from keeping us healthy,” Cramer said.
“While this virus has been a colossal contributor to a slowdown in the global economy, it simply doesn’t lend itself to goods that are working,” he added. “You’ve got Clorox, Zoom Video and Teladoc on reality, Gilead on hope. That’s about it.”
Clorox (CLX): Cramer explained that consumer are likely to turn to Clorox disinfecting products — bleach and wipes — that can kill germs to play their part in keeping the coronavirus at bay.
Zoom Video (ZM): Demand for Zoom Video Communication’s videoconferencing and collaboration tools that allow employees to work from home has shot up because of the coronavirus epidemic in China, the company’s CEO Eric Yuan said in a “Mad Money” interview earlier this month.
Gilead (GILD): Cramer said he would take a chance on Gilead, a biotech company that is working on a coronavirus drug. The stock pays investors a 4% yield, he noted. At $67.01, the stock is more than $2 off its June closing high. “If any drug company is going to solve the puzzle of what to give people who’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19, I bet it’s Gilead,” Cramer said. “Even if they fail, the stock’s too cheap to ignore here.”
Teladoc (TDOC): Shares of Teladoc Health, the telemedicine company that connects patients with a doctor remotely, are up 40% in 2020.
Meanwhile, investors may be underestimating the negative impact of the coronavirus on corporate earnings, which poses a threat to the stock market rally, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief equity strategist.
While coronavirus fears triggered a worldwide sell-off in January, the losses proved short-lived. Global equities are trading near record highs on optimism that the impact from the epidemic will be limited and China will step up support for its economy, Bloomberg warned.
Goldman’s Peter Oppenheimer cautions against complacency. “Equity markets are looking increasingly exposed to near-term downward surprises to earnings growth,” Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman, wrote in a Feb. 19 note. “While a sustained bear market does not look likely, a near-term correction is looking much more probable.”