Cramer Says Forget the Data-Center Darlings. This ‘Boring’ AI Stock at 22x Is the Buy.

Omor Ibne Ehsan

Tue, July 7, 2026 astatine 8:35 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

• Cramer recommends IBM implicit data-center AI darlings, citing its 22x guardant P/E against 40x-plus peers and a caller BofA upgrade to $330.

• IBM's generative AI publication deed $12.5 cardinal with mainframe gross surging 51% successful Q1 2026, marking the company's 4th consecutive EPS beat.

• Bears question whether AI is cannibalizing older services, arsenic Consulting grew lone 4% contempt holding the largest stock of IBM's $12.5 cardinal AI book.

• Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and IBM didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Jim Cramer spent his July 6, 2026 Stop Trading conception pointing distant from the evident AI trade. While traders pursuit each hyperscaler capex beneficiary and GPU adjacency they tin find, helium told viewers to "check, without the cauldron of the information center, [they] should beryllium looking astatine IBM." His transportation leaned connected a caller Bank of America upgrade and a valuation that, successful a marketplace wherever AI names routinely commercialized northbound of 40x guardant earnings, looks astir quaint.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) is the commercialized helium wants you to marque portion the remainder of the marketplace is engaged elsewhere.

The Cramer pitch, successful his ain words

Cramer's setup was direct. "Bank of America raising terms target, raising net per share. It's got immoderate of people AI. But it truly is this large machine company," helium said, earlier landing connected the fig that matters. "And it sells astatine 22 times adjacent year's earnings. I deliberation this 1 works." He besides acknowledged the elephant. "I cognize it got deed precise severely erstwhile it reported, but I deliberation it's going to beryllium a good, bully idea."

Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and IBM didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

IBM printed a cleanable bushed connected April 22, past sold disconnected anyway. Shares closed the filing time astatine $257.80, dropped astir 10% wrong a week, past clawed backmost to $299.68 by Monday morning. BofA is present astatine $330 (raised from $315), citing bundle strength, Confluent synergies, and IBM's dividend record. The guardant P/E per Alpha Vantage is 23x, adjacent capable to Cramer's 22 to telephone it a match.

What's really wrong the "boring" AI communicative

The AI portion of IBM's concern is bigger than casual observers realize. The generative AI publication of concern had crossed $12.5 cardinal inception-to-date by year-end, with astir four-fifths successful Consulting and one-fifth successful Software, and it has been accelerating from $7.5 cardinal successful Q2 2025 and $9.5 cardinal successful Q3 2025. That is existent wealth attached to existent workloads.