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Jim Cramer's 'Stop Trading': Buy Visa

TheStreet.com Staff

Cramer made the call in anticipation of Visa's initial public offering, which the company said would be priced at between $37 and $42 a share, raising a total of $15 billion to $17.1 billion. Another possible offering, implemented to meet demand, would boost the total to $18.8 billion. If successful, such an IPO would be the largest in U.S. history.

Cramer compared Visa's decision to sell additional shares to a secondary offering made by XTO Energy (XTO) last week. He had strongly urged viewers to get in on that trade.

"You gotta stop selling a lot of the banks that own a lot of Visa," Cramer added. He mentioned National City (NCC) as one example.

Cramer also got behind Mastercard (MA). "I think Mastercard's great," he gushed, calling bears on the stock "naked," "polar" and "endangered." He explained that trade is "not an interest rate play. It's a paper-to-plastic play." He emphasized that Mastercard will benefit from an increasing number of transactions worldwide.

About the broader market, Cramer explained, "There are only two stories out here: the monolines and oil." He said that short pressure on MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK) causes the entire market to rise when those two stocks go up.