Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Buy the Bookham

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"I remember being a college student and law student right here without any money," Jim Cramer told the audience assembled at Harvard University for Wednesday's "Mad Money" TV show. The broadcast from Cambridge, Mass., kicks off the show's "Back to School" tour.

"Instead of using my student loans to pay tuition, I put it into stocks to make bigger money," he said. "So I'm here right now to help you [make money too]."

Cramer said that if you want to get rich early, you need to start investing early, even if you don't have a lot of money. That's why he told his audience to take a look at Bookham(BKHM).

Bookham closed at $6.96 Wednesday, and Cramer said that for the price of a cheap lunch he believes it's a stock with an upside anywhere from 30% to 100%.

The company makes optical components for fiber optic systems. "Think Lucent(LU). Think Nortel(NT). Think JDS Uniphase(JDSU)," he said.

Bookham is the No. 2 two optical component maker by market share, and it has been drowning in debt, he said. But it has unloaded its long-term and convertible debt, making its balance sheet one of the strongest in the business considering how much debt its competitors have, he added.

Cramer said that the company is probably what JDSU and Conexant (CNXT) were a quarter ago, since which time the two companies have seen their stocks soar.

Plus, he said, Bookham's stock trades at a 50% to 80% discount to peers, depending on whose 2006 earnings projections you use.

An audience member said he's graduating without a lot of money, and wanted to know the best way to invest.

Cramer said that at his age, now is the time to take a chance. He recommended going for a more aggressive mutual fund if taking the time to study stocks was not an option.

"At this age, take a chance. Make a lot of money," he said.