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Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Top Three Value Stocks for '07

TheStreet.com Staff

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

Jim Cramer continued an annual tradition on his "Mad Money" show Wednesday by offering some of his forecasts for the coming year.

He predicted the Dow Jones is going to close 17% higher at 14,582 in 2007 and named his top three value stocks of the year.

Last year, Cramer tapped only one stock of the year -- Allegheny Technologies (ATI Quote), which turned out to be the "single best-performing stock in the S&P 500." But this year, he said he's learned that people don't want one stock of the year; they want a menu to pick from.

As there are three types of stocks -- low-risk value stocks for conservative investors, higher-risk growth stocks, and speculative stocks for "bungee jumpers" -- Cramer said he is going to spend the rest of the week naming his top three in each category.

Howdy, Halliburton

Starting with his top value plays, Cramer named Halliburton (HAL Quote), which he owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, as his third value pick.

"When we look for value, we're looking for stocks with not much downside," he said. "These are stocks that let you sleep at night because the downside is quantifiable."

Everyone should have some value stocks in their portfolios, Cramer went on to say. Although many people hate this stock, he believes it is "too cheap," and if it stays that way, it could go private.

It doesn't make sense that the market hasn't taken Halliburton higher even though it owns 80% of KBR (KBR Quote), which is up 50% on its own, Cramer said. Once Halliburton sells its shares of KBR, Cramer believes it will be "flush with cash" and will reinvest in itself.

Cramer called it a "stellar play" for 2007.

Good as Goldman

The second place value contestant, Cramer continued, is Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), which he also owns for his charitable trust.

Despite the fact that Goldman Sachs is a $200 stock, he explained it is cheap on a valuation basis. It has a 15% long-term growth rate, which is better than every brokerage house, but its multiple to earnings is lower than any of its competitors, Cramer said.

Goldman Sachs is the best broker, and the best play for mergers and acquisition activity, equity issuance and investing. At the same time, it is the cheapest, he said. Moreover, not only does the company have "great management," but last year it bought back more than $7.8 million of its stock and should buy back even more this year, Cramer said.

Goldman is a great value stock but is still the runner-up, he said.

All About Altria

If Cramer could only own one value stock for 2007, he said Altria (MO Quote), a stock he owns for his charitable trust, would be it. He named it his No. 1 value pick of the year.

If the company breaks up its domestic tobacco business, its international tobacco business and its Kraft Foods (KFT Quote) division, Cramer believes investors could make a quick $30 a share.

Altria's management knows it should split up the company, but up until this year, the company wasn't able to because of an endless stream of smoking-related lawsuits it faced. Now that the lawsuit stream is running low, Cramer said Altria will be able to focus on breaking up the company.

Kraft has been performing poorly, but those days will be over "once it's unshackled from tobacco," Cramer said. Also, Altria's international business should be "worth a lot more" on its own as exchange rates should "bump its earnings," he said.

Plus, Altria shareholders should benefit from the fact that it is cutting back on making its usual cultural contributions, that it has increased its price on cigarettes for the third time in three years and that it is getting rid of promotional discounts, which Altria has realized it does not need to sell its brands, Cramer said.

Let Your Six Flags Fly

Cramer welcomed Mark Shapiro, Six Flags' (SIX Quote) CEO and president, to the show and asked him when people are going to start liking the company.

"People are going to start liking Six Flags this year," Shapiro responded.

Management needed time to break the company down and to fix it, the chief executive said. Six Flags had a transition year in which the company rebuilt its foundation, and it is continuing to do so, he added.

"We've cleaned up our parks, put better employees on the ground," Shapiro said. "We reinvested money into fixing the operation." In addition, "the value of the underlying real estate is substantial," he continued.

Shapiro said people don't like Six Flags because they had a bad experience at the rundown parks. However, they need to understand that "it takes awhile to turn a ship like this around," he said.

"We are fixing it and marketing it better," he said. "We have a great team and are going to execute this year."

Cramer said he believes the stock is done going down and should go higher.

To view Cramer's interview with Mark Shapiro, please click here.

Lightning Round

Cramer was bullish on Chevron (CVX Quote), Melco PBL Entertainment (MPEL Quote), NYSE Group (NYX Quote), eBay (EBAY Quote), Simon Property Group (SPG Quote), Northgate Minerals (NXG Quote), Yamana Gold (AUY Quote), Crystallex (KRY Quote), Dell (DELL Quote) and Wells Fargo (WFC Quote).

Cramer was bearish on Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote), Motorola (MOT Quote), Nokia (NOK Quote) and Hershey (HSY Quote).

For more of Cramer's insights during the Lightning Round, click here.

Want more Cramer? Check out Jim's rules and commandments for investing from his latest book by clicking here.