CBS Should Go Private

Everybody loves Raymond, but nobody loves CBS (CBS - commentary - Cramer's Take). It's amazing how sometimes, even with the best of intentions, you can't get a stock going when real organic growth is nonexistent. Les Moonves and the team at CBS have done a remarkable job returning money to shareholders in the form of six dividend boosts and a hefty buyback that has retired more than 160 million shares in less than three years -- 789,000,000 to 622,000,000. I don't know of another company with that fantastic record of putting the shareholder first. They are certainly as great to their shareholders as you could ask.

But nobody likes it because the growth is so slow: roughly 6% a year and seemingly stuck there, almost bondlike in its return. That's incredible given how many of its shows are in the top 10, although the company is only No. 2 in the key younger demographic the advertisers prize. It has done a great job of monetizing worldwide what it does have, including CSI, and its programming from Showtime gets better and better. But prime time is simply a little-to-no-growth business, and in a recession, the ad money will be cut back. It always is.

Radio's down high single digits year over year, but the company's seeing a turn in April and May -- although I don't know how much of that turn is directly related to the political campaign, and I don't trust that industry to do anything but diminish over time, particularly if XM (XMSR - commentary - Cramer's Take) merges with Sirius (SIRI - commentary - Cramer's Take).

Why can't this stock rally despite that enviable return of capital, even if business isn't that robust? Because the real growth isn't there, and the decline is being viewed as secular in nature, not cyclical.. The TV numbers were good, actually, because of syndication, not advertising or audience increase. The growth in "regular" TV is almost nil. Radio was simply awful, despite their protestations. I didn't see the kind of growth that outdoor is supposed to have.

I can't be negative about a stock with a 4.65% yield that's continuing to do right by shareholders.

But then again, the real solution here, when you have this little growth, is not to be public. The company simply doesn't need the public markets. The cash flow is big, it just simply lacks momentum.

I believe this one is a natural to go private. It just shouldn't bother anymore to try to please anyone but its real owners -- Sumner Redstone -- because it is failing badly at being a good stock for the public to place its money.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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