Jim Cramer's Mad Money Review

On the Mend: Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News)Cramer says that a broken stock can make a comeback only when the company is prepared to do something drastic to prove that profits are its chief concern. He is bullish on Viacom since it announced that it is cutting 250 jobs at MTV. Cramer compares this scenario to TWX's rise after selling of 18 of its magazines. The mistake Viacom has made, according to Cramer, is that it was being run like a growth company even after it stopped growing, and "became a victim of its own success" by its almost exclusive focus on a younger demographic. Since the company is more concerned about profits than growth, Cramer expects the company will deliver and adds that it is trading at a "big discount."Lamson & Sessions (NYSE: LMS - News), American Standard (NYSE: ASD - News), Home Depot (NYSE: HD - News)Cramer discussed the "damned up flood of money in private-equity firms" and commented that if he were working at a private equity firm, he would want to buy LMS which is a gift at $28.25. Since the raw cost of PVC piping, one of LMS' products, is "dropping like a rock," the company should benefit, and its shortfall has already been priced into the stock. LMS is part of Cramer's "private equity dream" which includes ASD's plumbing business and HD's building and supply company. If a private-equity company purchases these three, it can form a "plumbing and construction powerhouse" that could go public in a few years.Hit or Miss: Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR - News), General Electric (NYSE: GE - News)Cramer cited a Financial Times article reporting the most earnings misses this quarter since the third quarter of 2004, but he said that an earnings miss is not a reason to sell a stock, but can even be an incentive to buy or to hold, since most of the time, a poor report is already baked into the stock, as was the case with WHR. Cramer likes WHR because it and GE have a "virtual monopoly" on washers and dryers and that it has integrated its acquisition Maytag well. Cramer warned viewers not to buy after hours or before doing research on the stock.CEO Interview: Michael Wilson, Agrium (NYSE: AGU - News)Cramer commented that while many fertilizer companies see "capacity come on and new plants being built," he doesn't notice the same thing happening with AGU. Michael Wilson responded that progress has been slow since few anticipated the tight market, and the company hasn't been building new plants. However, fertilizer demand "is a major global phenomenon," he added, and the company already has 500 retail stores. Cramer is bullish on Agrium because he believes in the agricultural complex.
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Labels: AGU, ASD, GE, HD, Jim Cramer, LMS, Mad Money, TWX, VIA, WHR

On the Mend: Viacom (NYSE: VIA - News), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News)Cramer says that a broken stock can make a comeback only when the company is prepared to do something drastic to prove that profits are its chief concern. He is bullish on Viacom since it announced that it is cutting 250 jobs at MTV. Cramer compares this scenario to TWX's rise after selling of 18 of its magazines. The mistake Viacom has made, according to Cramer, is that it was being run like a growth company even after it stopped growing, and "became a victim of its own success" by its almost exclusive focus on a younger demographic. Since the company is more concerned about profits than growth, Cramer expects the company will deliver and adds that it is trading at a "big discount."Lamson & Sessions (NYSE: LMS - News), American Standard (NYSE: ASD - News), Home Depot (NYSE: HD - News)Cramer discussed the "damned up flood of money in private-equity firms" and commented that if he were working at a private equity firm, he would want to buy LMS which is a gift at $28.25. Since the raw cost of PVC piping, one of LMS' products, is "dropping like a rock," the company should benefit, and its shortfall has already been priced into the stock. LMS is part of Cramer's "private equity dream" which includes ASD's plumbing business and HD's building and supply company. If a private-equity company purchases these three, it can form a "plumbing and construction powerhouse" that could go public in a few years.Hit or Miss: Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR - News), General Electric (NYSE: GE - News)Cramer cited a Financial Times article reporting the most earnings misses this quarter since the third quarter of 2004, but he said that an earnings miss is not a reason to sell a stock, but can even be an incentive to buy or to hold, since most of the time, a poor report is already baked into the stock, as was the case with WHR. Cramer likes WHR because it and GE have a "virtual monopoly" on washers and dryers and that it has integrated its acquisition Maytag well. Cramer warned viewers not to buy after hours or before doing research on the stock.CEO Interview: Michael Wilson, Agrium (NYSE: AGU - News)Cramer commented that while many fertilizer companies see "capacity come on and new plants being built," he doesn't notice the same thing happening with AGU. Michael Wilson responded that progress has been slow since few anticipated the tight market, and the company hasn't been building new plants. However, fertilizer demand "is a major global phenomenon," he added, and the company already has 500 retail stores. Cramer is bullish on Agrium because he believes in the agricultural complex.
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: AGU, ASD, GE, HD, Jim Cramer, LMS, Mad Money, TWX, VIA, WHR

The media sector will be dominated by a handful of companies that produce or distribute entertainment, despite a proliferation of new technologies and companies vying to deliver programming to homes and handheld devices, a leading media analyst said on Monday. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen sees consolidation in distribution, even as new players like phone companies begin to compete with cable operators in offering Internet, television and voice services. "There will be three to five large distributors ... there's roughly four or five large content companies, and lots of other players," Cohen told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. Within the cable segment, Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA - News) and Time Warner Cable are likely to dominate, and the remaining players will be much smaller and possibly controlled by private investors, Cohen told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. Time Warner Cable is part of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - News). Phone companies Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - News) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - News) are taking the lead in building up video services and might ultimately buy satellite providers like DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE:DTV - News) or EchoStar Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH - News).
"We would expect there'll be consolidation on that side," Cohen said. "Whether its DirecTV and EchoStar, or EchoStar being sold to one of the telephone companies." Cohen, who joined Merrill Lynch in 1994 as managing director and senior media and entertainment analyst, is among the top ranked in the industry. WHO'S BUYING, and WHO'S SELLING? Wall Street is also eyeing media sector mergers and acquisitions among smaller film and television producers including DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE:DWA - News). "Would DreamWorks be an obvious acquisition candidate? It makes sense to me," Cohen said. The two companies created by the January split of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA-B - News) from broadcaster CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS-A - News) could also be in the market for purchases, with some market speculation that either might also seek to go private. "I think you'll see with the separation of Viacom and CBS there are things that they used to have and they don't have that they may want to build up again," Cohen said. Viacom and CBS separated in January in a bid to appeal to different classes of shareholders. Since the split, the stock of CBS, once considered saddled with the slower-growing TV and radio units, has performed better than MTV Networks-owner Viacom. "There's a lot of speculation (over) one side or the other (being) taken private," Cohen said, adding that she thought it was unlikely. "I don't know that there's a willing seller there." Media mogul Sumner Redstone controls both Viacom and CBS.
Source: Reuters.com

Labels: Cable, CBS, CMSA, DISH, DTV, DWA, Entertainment, media, MTV, Radio, T, TWX, VIA, VZ