Cramer’s First Defensive Telecom Stock: Verizon

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

On CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight, Jim Cramer discussed retail signaling that you need to build a defensive portfolio.  Telecom is actually defensive right now after seeing Verizon’s (VZ) and AT&T’s (T) quarters.  Cramer is making a change tonight even though he likes both of those stocks: Cramer didn’t say that AT&T is a sell at all, but any new money in the safer telecoms should go toward Verizon.  The company has a 4.3% yield and is more defensive with a reputable CEO.  He thinks the wireless business is going very well with more than 14% growth year over year and the highest retention rates.  The real money that Cramer sees will come from FiOS warring against cable in accelerated revenue growth.  Cramer likes the Triple Play, and that is going to help Verizon and that convergence is actually not a joke this time around.  He also likes the leverage it now has over Vonage.  Comparing AT&T versus Verizon, Cramer says he’s for Verizon now for any new money in the sector.

Jon C. Ogg
May 1, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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