Cramer: Countrywide Still Looks Like a Buy

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Feb. 6 at 7:32 a.m. EST. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

The conundrum of Countrywide (CFC Quote) going up even as another subprime dealer, Mortgage Lenders Network, goes under, may be answered by a simple tenet: The weak hands are going under, leaving the biggest and best to triumph.

When I pulled up with Angelo Mozilo, the man who built Countrywide -- the man who is Countrywide, some would say -- we joked about how strong Countrywide's business is because it has always "modeled" the bad loans better than anyone. One of the mistakes made by the analyst community is believing that any loans that go under could be death to a lender. In truth, the good ones model what will happen under a lot of scenarios, and it is pretty clear that Countrywide has the best models. Always has.

When the company's stock got bid up on takeover rumors, despite insider selling, I expected it to come right back down. ...