Jim Cramer's Stop Trading! Buy Sprint

Buy Sprint (S Quote), Jim Cramer said Monday on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" segment.

Cramer shrugged off Monday's rumor that Vodafone (VOD Quote) is buying U.S. wireless partner Verizon (VZ Quote), saying Verizon "should be buying Vodafone instead." But Cramer said the chatter points to the rising value of cell-phone networks -- a trend he says could make Sprint a solid buyout in coming weeks or months.

Cramer conceded that Sprint has been poorly run and that its shares have already risen substantially off their lows in the wake of serial financial shortfalls. But he said "you'd be nuts to not take it private" if you thought a turn was at hand in its business. He said the company could be valuable either to private-equity buyers or to overseas telcos.

Cramer would also buy Verizon, regardless of the Vodafone talk, to which he replied, "give me a break." He called CEO Ivan Seidenberg "an underestimated man" and said the stock is cheap at recent prices between $42 and $43.

Cramer said Coke (KO Quote) is a buy too, ahead of this week's big second-quarter earnings report. Cramer said he sees the stock going to $55 by the weekend from a recent $54 and change, because the Atlanta beverage company is "the ultimate weak-dollar play."

Cramer also lauded short-seller James Chanos' work on Moody's (MCO Quote), but said he would pair a plan to sell Moody's stock with a buy of ratings rival McGraw-Hill (MHP Quote), owner of Standard & Poor's.