Jim Cramer Blog

Triple Deal for Triple Play? Charter Communications (NasdaqGM: CHTR), Comcast (NasdaqGS: CMCSA)
While Cramer recently doubted his sanity for having recommended CHTR, which hasn't budged since February, he heard some news that makes him bullish on CHTR once again. CMCSA announced plans to take over Insight Communications' assets in Indiana and Illinois for $4583 per subscriber, 12% higher than CHTR's rate of $4017. In addition, CMCSA made a deal with New Jersey based Patriot Media for $5,963 per subcriber. Cramer sees CHTR as a very attractive takeover target for Comcast, which is willing to pay a substantial fee for subscribers. Although CHTR has some debt, it is currently in a virtuous cycle of refinancing and is cheap. In addition, CHTR is based in fast-growing areas like Nevada and California and is a great triple play stock, comments Cramer.
All Cedant's Children: Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN - News)
Cramer notes that, after Cedant's breakup, its children are growing up "real fast", a total of 32% since the breakup. However, the ugly duckling seems to be WYN, which owns Ramada Hotels and timeshares and "is a great play on cheapskate baby boomers" who want fancy ski vacations but don't like to pay fancy prices. At $34.50, WYN is only $2 above where it was when Cedant spun it off, and Cramer sees more upside. He is not worried about its $2.9 billion debt, since it works like a bank, lending money at high interest rates. WYN is a takeover target, according to Cramer and is "way too cheap."
Makeover for Harsco (NYSE: HSC - News)
Cramer likes the way Harsco is reinventing itself and regrets referring to HSC as a manufacturing company. Instead, Cramer describes HSC as a "miniconglomerate of industrial services and products" and notes it is "taking the lead in industrial outsourcing." It is aggressively taking market share in mills and access services, businesses that "didn't exist ten years ago." Now the company is "beating the Chinese and everyone else as well." Cramer is bullish on HSC because it is "brilliantly creating a niche for itself."
Michael Farrell, Chairman and CEO of Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY - News)
Michael Farrell explained why his company wasn't devastated by the subprime lending fiasco, and credits the company's thirty year experience in spotting trends; "I don't pretend to have a crystal ball ... but the bottom line is that it was unsustainable." Farrell said it is too early to pick up the pieces and the crisis, which has yet to reach the third inning, needs time to play itself out. "The flight to quality that's going to happen with triple-A assets is still there," Farrell continued, and stated the relative safety or danger will depend on the asset class. Cramer remarked that he regrets ever doubting the stock, and called NLY and Michael Farrell winners.
Published by SeeingAlpha

Labels: CHTR, CMCSA, Hot Stocks, HSC, Jim Cramer, Mad Money, NLY, WYN

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network (NYSE:ANW - News) shares surged Friday in the company's stock market debut.
Allegiant Travel (NASDAQ:ALGT - News) shares jumped in the company's initial public offering.
Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA - News) priced a public offering of 11.5 million common shares at $13.21 each, the stock's closing price on Thursday. The deal includes an over-allotment option for the sale of an additional 1.725 million shares. San Diego-based Arena said CIBC World Markets served as the sole book-running manager in the offering.
Atwood Oceanics Inc. (NYSE:ATW - News) reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $23.2 million, or 74 cents a share, compared with $6.66 million, or 21 cents a share, in the same period last year, as revenue jumped.
Cascade Corp. (NYSE:CAE - News) said third-quarter net income rose, as revenue gained, to $12.3 million, or 94 cents a share, from $10.8 million, or 84 cents a share, during the same period in the prior year. Also, the company is increasing its revolver to $125 million from $25 million to fund potential acquisitions and to provide short-term funding for the share repurchase program.
Shares of Citigroup (NYSE:C - News) traded at their highest level since April 2004 on Friday. In a research note, analysts at Lehman Bros. said they expect the company's management to provide an outlook for positive operating leverage and improving net interest margins in 2007 when it holds an investor presentation next weeks. The analysts said they do not expect the company to announce any plans to break it up.
Credence Systems (NASDAQ:CMOS - News) said the fourth-quarter net loss narrowed, as operating expenses fell, to $1.94 million, or 2 cents a share, from a net loss of $22.5 million, or 23 cents a share, during the same period in the prior year.
Esterline Technologies Corp. (NYSE:ESL - News) reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $18.4 million, or 71 cents a share, up 19% from $15.4 million, or 60 cents a share, during the year-ago period. The company also said it now expects fiscal 2007 per-earnings of $2.45 to $2.60, up from its previous outlook of $2.40 to $2.60, boosted by record backlogs and new products coming to market.
Shares of Forgent Networks (NASDAQ:FORG - News) soared after the Austin, Texas-based technology licensing company posted a profit for its fiscal first quarter due to a doubling of revenue. The company, which also provides office administration software, earned $2.7 million, or 11 cents a share, for the three months ended Oct. 31 on revenue of $9.1 million. In the same period a year earlier, Forgent lost $300,000, or a penny per share, on revenue of $4.4 million. Looking ahead, the company said it expects to continue to generate intellectual property licensing revenue in fiscal 2007.
Shares of Hansen Natural Corp. (NASDAQ:HANS - News) surged after the Corona, Calif., beverage company disclosed it's recorded more than $500 million in gross sales for its Monster Energy drinks since their launch on January 1. The company said it reached the milestone in November.
Harsco Corp. (NYSE:HSC - News) reaffirmed its outlook for earnings from continuing operations of $4.49 to $4.51 a share in 2006 on revenue of more than $3.3 billion. The company also forecast earnings from continuing operations of $5.05 to $5.15 a share in 2007 with sales projected to grow more than 7%. The current average estimates of analysts polled by Thomson First Call are for profits of $4.51 a share in 2006 and $5.06 a share in 2007.
Heelys Inc. (NASDAQ:HLYS - News) shares jumped in one of the top IPO performances of the year.
Ingersoll-Rand Co. (NYSE:IR - News) said it has authorized the buyback of up to $2 billion of its Class A shares.
Investment Technology Group (NYSE:ITG - News) said November average daily volume rose to 175 million shares from 119 million shares a year earlier, and up from 150 million shares in October. Total U.S. volume was 3.7 billion shares vs. last year's 2.5 billion shares and last month's 3.3 billion shares.
Mace Security International (NASDAQ:MACE - News) agreed to sell its Arizona car wash operations for $19.3 million cash. Mace, Mount Laurel, N.J., said the sale includes 12 car washes and represents about $10 million of Mace's total revenue of $68 million in 2005. Nine of the car washes are owned and three are leased.
Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:MLNM - News) said the Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval of Velcade for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy. MCL is a form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which has a U.S. prevalence of 10,000 patients. Cambridge, Mass.-based Millennium said the approval marks the first indication for Velcade in lymphoma, the most common blood cancer.
Nanometrics Inc. (NASDAQ:NANO - News) said it has received a favorable Markman decision in the patent infringement case brought by Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI - News).
Online Resources Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCC - News) said it sees a first-quarter 2007 per-share net loss of 33 to 35 cents on revenue of $30 million to $31.5 million. Pro forma, or "core net income," for the quarter is expected to range from a loss of a penny to a profit of a penny.
QMed (NASDAQ:QMED - News) shares rose after the Eatontown, N.J.-based provider of information management systems to health plans said it has reached an agreement with Alere Medical Inc. to settle their litigation and arbitration. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, although QMed said the agreement calls for Alere to pay a "low seven-figure dollar amount," which is to be received by Dec. 13.
Shares of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT - News) advanced after the San Diego, Calif., warehouse club retailer said its same-store sales jumped 18.5% in November. Total sales for November rose 22.9% to $69.7 million from $56.7 million in the same period a year earlier.
Verifone Holdings Inc. (NYSE:PAY - News) reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $13.9 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $12.1 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same period last year, on the back of strong revenue from international business.
By Michael Baron of MarketWatch

Labels: ALGT, ANW, ARNA, ATW, C, CAE, CMOS, ESL, FORG, HANS, HLYS, Hot Stocks, HSC, IR, MACE, MLNM, NANO, PAY