Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK-NASDAQ) had its CEO interviewed by Cramer on CNBC’s MAD MONEY.

Cramer wanted to know why the valuations are higher and why it keeps going up.  The company is a traditional thrift, so they retain mortgages and don’t sell the mortgages and loans.  They only do prime mortgages, so not high risk.  They haven’t had a net charge-off in 7 years. 

The CEO says they have excess capital and they were a mutual holding company until 1995.  Cramer said you get bank exposure here as the one that keeps going up with no poor credit risk profiles.  HCBK closed down 0.15% at $14.13, close to the $14.25 high over the last 52-weeks; It was trading at a new 52-week high of $14.38 in after-hours trading if that holds.

Here are some stats: HCBK is worth close to $8 Billion in market cap, trades with a P/E ratio of over 25, trades at a "stated" 1.6 times book value, and has profit margins of over 40% if those numbers are accurate.

Jon C. Ogg
January 16, 2007