CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer says that Big Tech – Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft – are the “Fort Knoxes of our era… These stocks are the new repositories of wealth.”
“This year we’re witnessing the passing of the torch: Bonds were the safest assets back in 1982, back when Treasurys yielded double digits. Now they’re risky assets,” Cramer said. “The truth is, for many companies that we follow, the equity side is … a much better repository of wealth for you, the individual, than the credit side. Not all [stocks], but a surprising number.”
Cramer highlighted Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet as being a wiser choice for wealthy investors looking to find investment options that are even better than predictable returns provided in the debt markets. The four companies, or “FAAM,” as Cramer calls the group, are valued at more than $4.7 trillion combined.
Of the four tech giants, Apple has the largest amount of cash on hand, with $192 billion set aside. Microsoft has $138 billion in the bank, and Google-parent Alphabet has $133 billion. Facebook, the smaller of the bunch, has $55 billion tucked away, Cramer noted.
“If you’re a young, wet-behind-the-ears broker at Goldman Sachs, I would tell you to forget all of those bond ideas, just tell your clients to buy the stocks of terrific companies with fantastic nation-state-sized balance sheets,” the host said. “You’ll do much better with a heck of a lot less long-term risk and more dividends.”
MacDailyNews Take: As Cramer has long said of Apple stock, “Own it, don’t trade it.”