Facebook parent Meta’s shares have nearly doubled in value since CNBC anchor Jim Cramer emotionally apologized to viewers for touting the tech giant’s stock as a buying opportunity on Oct. 27.
Meta shares Thursday were up about 95% in intraday trading — to nearly $180 — compared to their closing price of $99. 74 the day Cramer’s somber segment aired on “Squawk on The Street.”
On Thursday, the stock surged 25% after Meta posted a fourth-quarter sales beat and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated a pledge to rein in spending.
Cramer’s meltdown last October came after Meta had plunged 25% in a single session, hitting its lowest level in six years, following an alarming quarterly earnings report in which the company said profits had fallen more than 50%.
The selloff led a choked-up Cramer, who had touted Zuckerberg as “simply unstoppable” and rated Meta a buy a few months earlier in June, to apologize to CNBC’s viewers.
“I made a mistake here. I was wrong. I trusted this management team. That was ill-advised. The hubris here is extraordinary and I apologize,” Cramer said at the time.
He had to stop several times to compose himself.
The company’s 2023 rally has prompted a gleeful response among Cramer’s critics, including the @CramerTracker Twitter account, which styles itself as an “Inverse Cramer ETC” and whose bio notes it tracks “the stock recommendations of Jim Cramer so you can do the opposite.”
The account shared a chart on Wednesday afternoon displaying Meta’s stock surge since the date that “Jim gave up on Meta.” At the time of @CramerTracker’s tweet, Meta was up 85%.
The Post has reached out to CNBC for comment.
Cramer appeared to have again changed his tune again after Meta reported earnings on Wednesday.
“I like that Meta management used the term “efficiency” or “efficient” 16 times because i have NEVER regarded them as efficient. Really good news for shareholders,” Cramer tweeted.
“Refreshing degree of humility and modesty on the Meta call, too,” Cramer added. “I like that.”
Meta’s resurgence comes on the heels of a dismal 2022 in which the tech giant’s stock plunged 65%. Zuckerberg irked investors by spending billions on a troubled push into the metaverse despite signs of sagging revenue and a decline in usage of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.
While Cramer has yet to respond to the latest criticism of his Meta call, the longtime CNBC anchor has bristled in the past when detractors mock his predictions.
Last August, Cramer lashed out at the Financial Times after its “Alphaville” blog said his prediction that the US had hit peak inflation “leads us to worry that it hasn’t.”
When July inflation numbers showed a slight reduction in prices, Cramer demanded that the FT apologize.
“Waiting for the Financial Times to apologize for trashing me when i said we have peak inflation,” Cramer tweeted. “I think their insulting words actually are NOT funny.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
