>> so beautiful. my mission is simple, to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money." welcome to cramerica. i'm just trying to make you some money. my job is not just to entertain but to educate and teach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. >> right now we are dealing with three markets that are really amassed as a single one. first there's the stock market that every day seems so darn heavy. most stocks headed down. why? considered overvalued. they may have the overvalued stocks that people can't live without.

breathing companies, not companies hostage to the overall gloom or the fed's on-again, off-again pronouncements. they all combine, and on days like today, the bulls went out. dow gaining 77 points. s&p advancing 0.47%. nasdaq climbing 1%. let's start with the living, breathing companies because that's all people were talking about today, namely the merger between at&t and time warner. i've talked about this deal in more detail, and i'll do it again later in the show. but right now, i want to raise a larger point. jeff bewkes, the terrific, some would say great american ceo of with wall street for years, claiming his company is worth substantially more than what its stock was selling for. while the stock's been a good one, candidly i thought time warner traded at discount to what it was worth because wall street has such a bias against networks, tv networks, and, yes, movies. the anti-network bias has to do with time-shifted programming and the endless talk about cord cutting. the younger generation just doesn't watch tv the way the older one does. and with a bunch of programming that wall street believes to be

shake anybody's notion of the advertising dollars going away no matter how bewkes explained it. no matter how many times he said there was tremendous value in the enterprise, people doubted bewkes. meanwhile, movie studio content has been regarded as too episodic really to judge its success, even as time warner has built a long-term hit machine. one by one, bewkes shed the parts of his company he thought kept the valuation back -- aol, the actual cable business, and the physical magazines, allowing the goodness of time warner's ow for a moment, it seemed that all of bewkes' hard work would go for naught because a couple of years ago, rupert murdoch's fox snuck in with an $85 bid, $20 more than the stock was trading at the time. bewkes thought the offer was highway robbery. it seems strange, but he did. and he refused to negotiate. and fox did go away. time warner stock then enjoyed a good run subsequently, going a few points past the $85 bid. but then it fell back into the 60s. why? well, it went to the 60s because of the same old worries as i just pointed out. at no point did bewkes waver,

company or do a tracking stock that showed the true value of hbo to the world. i know we got frustrated with wall treat for not seeing all the good news when his stock languished back in the 60s. but in the end, the man was dead right. patience yielded $107.50. what a bid from at&t, more than $22 higher than what fox offered. while the stock is still a far distance from that -- more on that later -- it's what you get if the deal actually goes through. here's my point. in retrospect, wall street completely misvalued time warner, the enterprise. the company's truth worth because the ultimate arbiter is another business swooping in to make an acquisition, not the incredibly fickle nature of the stock market, which hangs on every word of some fed governor or fed president or the price of oil. what did that have to do with this? but i said we have three markets, not one, and time warner's end game is just one of them. we've got the overvalues. those are the stocks that investors love no matter what because they have so much growth. i'm talking about facebook,

they come to mind because these are regarded as what we used to call category killers. if content is king, all three of the kind of content that you can't get enough of with supplier and user-generated free content or content that the advertisers pay for you to list that doubles as a magnet for that advertising spending. none of the networks offers that kind of product. so facebook, alphabet, and amazon lived a charmed existence and get bought on every dip or frankly on every advance like they did today. finalle to suffer through the hazards of being enterprises that are being valued off what the fed says, the direction of interest rates, price of oil. think companies like vf corp. and kimberly corp., which reported disappointing results today and really got crushed. vf, the apparel company, guided down sharply and showed weakness on almost every line but especially north face and jeans. the former may have been hurt by warm weather, but maybe the brand has peaked. as for jeans, we recently had levis on and we speak to pvh,

i think vf lost a step to the competition. its stock dropped almost 3% today. the main culprit, as they said, was the economy. you think they're worried about the economy at facebook? how about kimberly-clark? gee, that was a downer of a call with weakness pretty much across the board. it was nasty. there was very little growth in any business. the organic growth numbers were flat because as ceo tom falk told us, the numbers, quote, reflected a more challenging economic environment, end quote. there it is again, the environment. we just don't tend to think that can be a problem when you're selling kleened right? those are steady eddies. no, the economy played a role. that slow and steady stock gave you a drop of just monumental proportions today. that caused the market to re-evaluate the stock of pepsico, the large cap consumer packaged goods company with the best actual top and bottom line numbers as well as some very strong organic growth. that's how pepsi could rally nearly two bucks on a day that kimberly-clark went down almost 5%. we own pepsico for the charitable trust.

i think it's not done going higher, not after i saw that comparison from kimberly. of course there are other companies that might get revalued up on a different day. if at&t hadn't just agreed to buy time warner, you know what we would have been doing today? we probably would have been talking about how t-mobile totally crushed at&t and verizon regardless of the environment, adding far more subscribers than anyone expected. as one of the most aggressive competitors of our time, ceo john legere said on his conference call, and i quote, we delivered the best results in the industry again, and we beat the competition in k m customer additions, prepaid additions, service revenue percentage growth, and adjusted ebitda percentage growth just to name a few, end quote. in other words, t-mobile took no prisoners, including those of verizon and at&t, the latter of which is losing customers. and we wonder why at&t had to go big. otherwise, it had to go home. on days like today, the market does seem a little unfair to me. a fine executive like jeff bewkes shouldn't have to wait for years before the value of his company is recognized on wall street. but lack of valuation ceilings for stocks like facebook or amazon is galling to virtually

things like price-to-earnings multiples. way too ho-hum for these couple of stocks. but then you see a guy like legere, who is rewarded for his good works in the here and now, and it all seems kind of worth it. so here's the bottom line. it's a panoply, an upsetting one at times, but we're stuck with it. rather than denigrating this market, though, i think today was a lesson in patience. those who waited were rewarded big except if they backed the most impatient t-mobile, where the future is now, and no waiting was necessary. chris in california. chris. >> caller: hey, jim. how are you? >> i am good, chris. how about you? >> caller: i'm good, thanks. i have kind of a two-part question for you. >> caller: one is would you recommend buying viacom right now? and, two, if the merger with cbs goes through, do you think that will provide value for the current shareholders of viacom? >> on "mad money" we never recommend a stock on a takeover basis if the fundamentals are deteriorating, and that is the case with viacom.

we like les moonves very much, and i think there would be no deal for viacom unless cbs thought its stock would go higher. that's how powerful les moonves is there. ruth in washington, ruth. >> caller: hello, jim. how are you? >> i am great. how about you, ruth? >> caller: great. i want to thank you so much first of all for educating and helping the small investor like myself. >> well, thank you, ruth. that's the goal. >> caller: you have helped me so much. thank you. >> thank you. >> caller: i have a question about the athletic sector. >> okay. >> caller: i own nike, which is down a little more than 16% year-to-date. but i'm now looking at foot locker, where i see upside movement, and actually today it almost reached its 52-week high. >> ruth, first of all, thank you for those kind comments. we have been pushing foot locker endlessly on the show. why? because we want to have exposure to under armour, which reports this week. we want exposure to nike. and more important, we wanted to

that's why that one, i think, goes even higher. unfortunately, fairness has no place on wall street, but patience does. today is proof that while value isn't always recognized, if you're willing to wait, as is the case with t-mobile, you can be rewarded. on "mad" tonight, superman, bugs bunny, and wolf blitzer could soon have a new corporate home. wondering what it means for your portfolio? i'm diving deep into the time warner/at&t deal. then smile for the camera. with over 1 million selfies taken globally each day, i'm focusing on stocks that could and at&t isn't the only stock taking action. i'm revealing the smartest acquirer on wall street. so just stick with cramer. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets. send jim an e-mail to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a

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$85 billion to buy time warner after shelling out $67 billion, including debt, to snap up directv just two years ago. can one company really spend $152 billion on deals in two years unless they believe their core business might be going away? it sure seems to smack of an existential crisis, doesn't it? it may be the result of t-mobile and sprint taking away cell phone customers while facebook and google have targeted advertisll regulators are in no mood for this deal to happen. and once again, like so many other advisors to acquirers, at&t's lawyers are looking at this transaction through the textbooks, which suggests it should sell through because there's no overlap between the companies. but you know what? that's not what they're looking at. the regulators are looking at it through the lens of politics, mainly the politics of something that could cause your already high phone bill to go higher. it's easy to make the political case that this could hurt

the deal done would probably be pretty unpalatable to both. hasn't that been the pattern? we've had an incredibly activist justice department here. the acquirer gets advised, though, that there's no real issues because traditionally there might not have been. but we're in a different political environment these days, one where it's just easier for the regulators to just say no. look at what happened when lam research and kla-tencor tried to merge. the regulators put the kybosh on that semiconductor equipment deal even though there was as lam ceo martin anstice told us last week, that was a puzzler. whether it's justified or not, lately americans have gotten pretty suspicious about the power of big business. in this kind of environment, the regulators have nothing to lose by blocking every deal that comes across their desk. that way no one can accuse them of being corporate stooges. but the people who advise potential acquirers don't seem to get that the old form of due process has just gone out the window, just as it did with the banks when they demanded explanations from the justice

multibillion-dollar fines and were told tough luck. honestly, there really isn't any obvious reason to block this at&t/time warner deal on antitrust grounds. does anyone truly believe that the suppliers of the combined companies will get squeezed? does anyone think it will send up your cable or cell phone bill? it doesn't matter what bothers people. it's the perception that two behemoths are being allowed to combine. i think that will be the deciding factor here. no wonder the stock was down today, and it's off more than 20 bucks from what would be the ultimate finish line. how about what this move says about at&t? i think management liked how their stock performed after they did the directv deal, but i wonder if that stock didn't go up simply as a case of at&t paying a good dividend versus the low returns from fixed income, a comparative change. isn't that lofty dividend the real reason behind the stock's run, a run that stopped almost exactly when rates bottomed? too coincidental for this guy. now, this deal is a twofer along those lines. with the fed about to raise interest rates, we think in december, at&t's dividend

from 44 to 37, just like so many other high yielders pricing in the declines before rates go up. so why not take advantage of what the decline is saying and load up on the last of cheap debt to buy time warner before the fed makes its move? the cash flow from time warner would ultimately make the dividend much easier to pay. but initially the price at&t is paying certainly makes you worry that the dividend is dispensable even as i know management says it's sacrosanct. then again, maybe at&t's management sees the writing on the wall about its own native telco industry. four energized, cutthroat players are now vying for the same subscribers with the reinvigoration of sprint complementing the aggressive nature of t-mobile, which put up some extraordinary numbers today and says it's taking a ton of market share from at&t and verizon, and you've got to believe them. maybe at&t believes it can take time warner and build an ecosystem that delivers great content over mobile platforms

commodity business. if that's ceo randall stephenson's master plan to recapture lost subscribers, he just might be offering growth and income security that could end up being loved. but i think it's a little overoptimistic. too optimistic given how little stephenson and at&t know about the content business. hey, they said the same this morning on "squawk box." i thought to myself, geez, i hope bewkes stays around, but he ain't, not for a while. could all this be nothing more than desperation? my colleague jack mohr at "the street" says the price tag screams of desperation. it's just too much money for at&t to pay versus what it gets out of the time warner acquisition. now, perhaps stephenson believes the jeweled asset is hbo, which can be offered with the nfl package from directv as a distinguishing reason to go with at&t over the other guys. that's intriguing, but i just can't see what else at&t gets here. a weird sports package, a developer of programming they know nothing about. they could be time-shifted.

the nfl ticket, which is the real asset of directv? let me ask you something. is that asset losing value along with the decline in football ratings? that's a tough sell and one of the reasons by the way, nfl, when i see this every two seconds on a football game, it starts boring me and everybody else. 6-6. the two old dog phone companies are insular. i think at&t looked at what verizon was doing with aol and yahoo, looked at how well its own stock had been performing with directv, again believing that the stock went higher interest rate comparisons. i bet thn't wanto be left behind when it comes to building, yes, an ecosystem. sure i hear people saying why not buy netflix, but remember time warner is actually much cheaper on earnings. much easier to justify to shareholders because of its bountiful cash flow that can help pay that dividend. now let's take the other side, and this is the positive side. jeff bewkes, the ceo of time warner, has done a remarkable job for his shareholders and deserves a tremendous amount of credit. so many had written this company off as one of the most vulnerable to a cord-cutting

yet in the last two years, bewkes was able to show convincingly that the stock was undervalued now that it cleaned itself up, gotten rid of cable, magazines, aol. there really wasn't that much more to do to get to the next level. remember, bewkes turned down what in retrospect was exactly what he called it, a lowball bid from fox for his company a couple years back, saying he could do better for shareholders than fox was willing to offer. this megadeal proves he was and is a man of his word. plus bewkes is 64, so the timing is pretty perfect for him and for his shareholders. now, i think that stephenson and bewkes are kind of oil and i have no idea if stephenson knows what to do with his new bauble. he doesn't seem to frankly know either, and it looks like he doesn't care. that's how much he wants an ecosystem to blunt google and facebook, the companies with no content costs that offer personally served advertising and are taking share from traditional media at a frightening pace. in other words, your worst nightmare. so my initial take -- at&t knows interest rates are going higher. it has the same kind of non-political advisors as everyone else. they don't recognize the tenor

antitrust lawyers from the other guys advising companies on all of the other challenged deals that failed. so it's kind of what the heck. our core business could be going away. we could be going up against google and facebook in addition to t-mobile, verizon and sprint, and maybe comcast. so why not try to get a deal done that gives us a chance to compete in the new world while rates are low and the dividend is still competitive because it might not be after a couple of hikes. now, there is successful precedent for this kind of vertical integration, comcast's purchase of nbc universal. i'm sure at&t figures it can pull off a similarly synergistic stock from $16 to $65 in just six years' time. just so you know, i own stock in comcast, and it's the parent company of this network. in the end, i come back to the regulatory issue. at&t tried to buy t-mobile in march of 2011, and justice blocked it. i think at&t might be denied a second time because of boogeyman worries about too much corporate competition concentration. in other words, that they all are getting together and therefore there's not enough companies going at it to try to keep all your bills down.

matters in this populist, political environment. companies are too big, so let's stop them. let's break them up. let me give my bottom line conclusion. don't buy the stock of either at&t or time warner. get income from steadier companies. get growth from faster companies. both of these companies have now taken themselves out of the running for either, and that is no place to be. much more "mad money" ahead. forget selfie sticks. i'm focusing on the selfie stocks. don't miss my take on the companies that could help you and your portfolio look fabulous. then from the breakfast table to taco night, b&g foods has the menu covered. do these brands belong in your portfolio as well as your shopping cart? and it's just another merger monday. the time warner/at&t deal may face an uphill battle getting approved, but i'm pointing out some m&a action that could make a bit more sense. so stick with cramer. ahh...still sick, huh? i'll take it from here. i'm good. i just took new mucinex clear and cool. ah! what's this sudden cooooling thing happening?

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i always like to have a shopping list of big picture themes, stories you can fall back on in any environment because they're driven by powerful long-term trends, meaning they're not hostage to the health of the global economy or whether the fed decides to raise interest rates in december or not. right now one of the biggest themes out there is hidden in plain sight like poe's purloined letter. i'm talking about the rise of the selfie. did you know that roughly a million selfies get taken every day just in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic? alone, there are an astonishing 275 million posts with the hashtag #selfie. and that's only counting the ones that are tagged really obviously. heck, when kim kardashian went to mexico earlier this year, she took more than 6,000 selfies. i mean that's only one woman on one vacation although admittedly she's a true genius when it comes to self-promotion. you don't need me to tell you about this stuff. but the selfie has taken over the world of social media just as social media has taken over, well, the world. obviously it's more than

pictures of everything, including their food. i constantly see people taking pictures of their food. i mean hello? but they can digitally document their lives online. it's like the old zen riddle. if the tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to post a photo of it on twitter or instagram, does it make a sound? now, everybody knows that facebook is the huge beneficiary here. that's why we have owned the stock forever for my charitable trust, which you can follow along at actionalertsplus.com. but they're not the only winner from the selfie revolution. i want to give you some additional ways to play this theme because it's just so huge. in a world where nearly everyone carries a smartphone with a high-definition digital camera, you need to expend some extra effort in order to look your best. you don't want to go outside with your ugly face on and get caught in a drive-by selfie like i did today on the subway. i mean if it finds its way on the web -- although of course i posted it. that's why tonight i'm rolling out cramer's selfie kit, the group of companies that help you

winds up on social media. the truth is vanity has always been a kind of theme you can bank on. but thanks to technology, it's gone into overdrive. so aside from social media companies themselves, who else profits from the selfie culture, and can we make money now on them, or maybe we got to wait a little bit? a lot of these, you've got to wait. let's start with one you do have to wait, and it's allergan, the pharmaceutical colossus created when actavis created the allergan of old, and another stock we own for the charitable trust. why does allergan belong in the selfie kit? assortment of products designed to make your face look as beautiful and unblemished as possible and of course younger than you are. they're the world leader in aesthetic medicine. this is the company behind botox for smooth, wrinkle-free skin that i obviously don't take, although it turns out botox has some legitimate medical uses as a treatment for migraines and overactive bladder. they sell juvederm, an injectable dermal filler gel that can add volume to parts of your vice, smooth lines, even pump up your lips. there's kybella, a drug allergan

getting rid of a double chin aside from dieting. let's not forget latisse. that's the company's formula for bigger, more voluminous eyelashes that really pop. i see that box at home, and it's not mine. oh, and beyond these pure aesthetic -- she doesn't watch the show. i'm okay. beyond these pure aesthetic products, allergan also has some major dermatological franchises with a number of compounds that fight acne, another necessity in a world where the selfie reigns supreme. allergan is not just about looking good. they have plenty of drugs designed to deal with real medical conditions including a huge eye care division. but with a smartphone camera in every pocket, i think the aesthetic part of the business has a powerful long-term tailwind. the stock has been put through the meat grinder. allergan got crushed earlier this year when the obama administration made them tear up their merger agreement with pfizer. the stock has been held down by worries that a possible clinton administration would declare war on higher drug prices. but under the leadership of ceo brent saunders, allergan has been a good citizen when it

pipeline with new products in the works. and let's not forget teva just paid them $40 billion in cash and stock for their slow growing generic drug business back in august. what a great sale. with the stock currently trading at about 13.5 times next year's earnings estimates, i think wall street is ignoring allergan's long-term growth potential. but as we told subscribers to action alerts, you might get a chance to buy it even lower as election day approaches and investors freak out about the possibility of a democratic wave. this stock is under severe pressure right now. it's trading like value for heaven's sake. so remember the tina turner theory. we don't need another hero because buying allergan right here is heroic. who else is in our selfie kit? to take a really good selfie, you need a good smile. and unless you were born with perfect teeth, you might need some help from align technology. they're the maker of invisalign, the system of clear removable liners that can straighten your teeth without the need for hideous braces. invisalign has been around since 1998 but they've still got an enormous growth opportunity, and the company keeps coming out

from undiscovered. the stock is up nearly 36% year-to-date, trading at 31 times next year's earnings estimates. not cheap. but this is a powerful secular growth story. 26% long term growth rate, so the valuation is justified. plus in the last six weeks, the stock has pulled back more than 7 bucks from its highs because of some misplaced worries about the strength of the dental market. i think that will be corrected when the line reports in a couple weeks. we just had ceo joe hogan on the show. i thought he acquitted himself well. the stock's down 4 bucks from next up, i want you to keep an eye on e.l.f. beauty, the rapidly growing makeup company that came public a little over a month ago. e.l.f., which stands for eyes, lips, face, is all about selling high-quality cosmetics at bargain basement prices, usually 6 bucks or less. the company started out selling these products online, and although they've expanded to bricks and mortar retailers, they still use the web to keep track of what their customers want. now, e.l.f. rocketed up 56% on its first day of trading. since then, the stock hasn't done much.

however, i think you can get it for less if you wait for a pullback as the growth seems to be decelerating a tad, and the company has some big private equity backers, who most likely will push the stock down when they eventually decide to ring the register. can't do it yet. i say put e.l.f. beauty on your shopping list, though, and wait for it to come lower because it is indeed about selfies. anyway, speaking of beauty plays that are worth buying into weakness, let's not forget about ulta. ulta salon, the largest cosmetics retailer in the u.s. with 928 stores and a salon services kicker that helps to immunize it against online competition. ulta may be the best performing retailer out there right now. last time it reported, the company delivered a spectacular 14.4% same-store sales growth. but if you remember, ulta stock got slammed the last time it reported because it only posted a small beat when wall street had come to expect so much more, that the company would always shoot the lights out. the stock is now down 26 points from its highs, $252. you know i'm a big fan. we had the ceo on recently.

points, but it's working its way down. i like it. oh, and estee lauder should be working here too, but it's missed the quarter several times in a row. so i can't recommend it right here because it's in the earnings dog house even as i have to admit it's the blue chip of the selfie lot. here's the bottom line. with the rise of the selfie, people have never been under more pressure to look their best, which is why it's worth investing in the companies that help with your appearance. and that's, again, among the reasons why i like allergan. remember, don't be a hero. align technologies. ulta salon. e.l.f. beauty in case of a pullback as a pure play on the selfie generation. david in florida, david. >> caller: how are you, jim? greetings from the dolphin fans down here. >> your guys got 200 yards running back-to-back. there's only been a handful of guys who have done that. i don't have them in my -- i'm looking at some people that do have them. go ahead.

the last year. >> you know, i was going back and forth. i think mobileye had this tussle with tesla, and it really hasn't sorted out yet. i think that until we get more clarity about what happened, mobileye, which is a very good company, has a stock that's just frankly too speculative for me. but i like the thought. ann marie in new york. ann marie. >> caller: oh, my god, jim, i'm so glad to talk to you tonight. >> same. you call it "mad money," and i'm in the process of moving some of my money over to an index fund. i'm calling about skechers. i listened to the conference call, and the only thing i figure out is their domestic comps are down, and they keep blabbing about all this international growth, but the market doesn't seem to like it. i don't want to panic and sell, but what do i do? >> at this point, this is a

between here and year end, now on tax loss selling. but i just think that to give up on the stock in the teens is really selling short those two gentlemen who run the company, and i'm not willing to do that. look, you'll probably never take a selfie as good as mine. you remember that classic? look, you could beat that, though. you can still invest in the trend of allergan, align technology, ulta salon, all benefiting from the self-aggrandizing photographic cu and look at e.l.f. beauty on a pullback. much more "mad money" ahead including my take on the one food company that seems to know how to do acquisitions that send the stock higher. here's my hint. it's a pickle producer, and i think it could continue to look appetizing. then time warner and at&t may be the deal that's making headlines. i'm eyeing other mergers in this market that could make more sense. and all your calls rapid fire on tonight's special edition of the

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lately it's gotten very difficult to invest in the supermarket and packaged food companies because the group has been hammered by food deflation. meanwhile the restaurants aren't any picnic either as more and more consumers decide to eat at home rather than going out. sonic with some bad numbers this evening. however, there are still a handful of food related stocks

mccormick, the spice company, that's a terrific way to play the home cooking theme. tonight i've got another one for you. i'm talking about one we haven't talked about in ages, b&g foods, bgs, the house of packaged food brands that's been steadily growing its business via a series of smart acquisitions. with a stock that's up nearly 40% year-to-date, that's dramatically outperforming the s&p 500. you might recognize them as the company behind cream of wheat, orterm beans, the eponymous b&g pickles, pirate's booty. what a hit that is, right? green giant, the frozen vegetables. but all of that just begs the question. how has this company managed to make investors feel enthusiastic about the prospects of a food company at a time when so many other food plays are in the dog house? and more important, can the company sustain this outperformance going forward? first you have to understand that b&g foods wasn't always a spectacular outperformer.

through the start of 2013, propelled in part by a great dividend. but then it began to lag behind the averages. for example, while b&g rallied nearly 20% in 2013, the s&p gained almost 30%. that marked an intermediate term peak because in 2014, another good year for the broader stock market, b&g stock actually lost 11.8%. then in the first half of 2015, it shed another 5%. s&p was basically flat. in short, from june of 2013 through june of 2015, two years, it seemed like b&g food had lost its way after a ry the company's growth was disappearing. in 2013, they managed to deliver 14.4 sales growth bolstered by a number of key acquisitions. they bought new york style, old london snacks in september of 2012. then they snapped up true north nut clusters in may of 2013. then that july, the company purchased the pirate's booty -- the pirate's brand, actually. that's a wildly popular item. they got this for $195 million. the pirate booty deal really ignited b&g's sales growth,

but, you see, once the company anniversaried those numbers, its growth began to decline, first shrinking to the low teens in the second half of 2014. then it just fell off a cliff in 2015. in fact, by the second quarter of 2015, b&g actually saw its sales shrink by 4.6%. unforgivable. and that's why the stock spent a couple of years lagging behind the averages. then b&g foods got its groove back. from august of last year through today, the stock has rallied an astounding nearly 60%. how did they pull it off? to put it simply, b&g went back buying high-quality but neglected brands because they're old-fashioned by their parent companies who no longer feel there's a lot of growth. then they breathe new life into them. specifically, a little over a year ago, in a genius move for both companies candidly, b&g foods told us it was buying green giant and le sueur brands, leaders in frozen and canned vegetable space. they bought it from general mills for $765 million in a transformational deal for them because they got better brands, and for general mills because they became more natural and

at the same time, management said that the acquisition would be immediately additive to the company's earnings per share and free cash flow. in addition to providing a big boost to b&b sales and earnings, it gave them a beachhead in the frozen food aisle of the supermarket. they didn't have one. and that's why the stock shot up 10% the day the news broke. you can understand why. the green giant deal immediately restored b&g to growth mode. in fact, in the first half of the year, the company's sales have increased more than 60%. more important, this acquisition has been even better for the company's bottom line, fueling a pair of monsteea hmm, but like the pirate's booty situation, here's the rub. b&g reports again on thursday, and this will be the fourth and, yes, the final quarter before the company laps the green giant deal, which means that going forward, the growth is likely to be -- well, at least to look a lot less impressive. remember, b&g stock tends to lose its luster when investors start to worry that the company is running out of growth. that is probably one of the reasons the company announced another major acquisition last

spices and seasonings business, for roughly $365 million in cash. we love the spices and seasoning business like mccormick. this was their first deal since the green giant transaction. so can this spice acquisition give b&g the fuel they need to keep producing some impressive growth results? well, b&g says the purchase will boost their sales by $225 million next year while also boosting the company's earnings by 26 to 28 cents per share, about an 11% increase versus what they expected this year. even better, the ach spices and seasonings deal complements the existing business. as i mentioned last week when i recommended mccormick, spices are one of the areas you can bank on in this environment where so many more people are deciding to cook at home. remember, we've got that whole home thesis. in short, i'm actually not too worried about b&g's growth flat lining once they anniversary the green giant deal because the company has already found its next source of growth. there's one other part of b&g's business model that i find really exciting. it's not just that they acquire these neglected brands and get them back in shape, which they

it's also how they do it. it's very conservative. in order to do these deals, they will regularly raise money for itself through secondary earnings, through the stock market, and these secondaries tend to be very well received. it's actually primary stock that they're selling to you to finance the deal. in august the company sold 3.75 million shares at 49 bucks. that's a 4% discount to where it was trading the day before. while b&g still hasn't caught up to its previous highs, the stock is currently trading at 48. the fact is these previous two deals turned out to be very lucrative long term. back in march, the company raised $152 million by selling a big slug of stock at $33.55, and in may 2015, they raised $126 million by pricing a secondary at $3.60. if you got in on those deals, well, the one of may of last year, you got 57%. and if you bought the second one, well, you'd be up 43%. that's 43% since march. given b&g's long-term track record, i bet their $49 secondary from august will turn out to be profitable for

snapping up that ach spice business. so i still like b&g foods, the company. what about the stock? the thing trades at 20 times next year's earnings estimates. that's just a slight premium to the overall market even though the stock's up nearly 40% for 2016. when you consider the robust growth rate, i have to believe b&g deserves to trade at a premium to the averages. plus they're paying you to wait for the ach spices deal to pay off, a bountiful 3.5% dividend yield. let me give you the bottom line on this complex story if you're looking for a safe growth investment in the beleaguered food space, you ought to it could be the way to go although the stock needs to come back a bit to entice given the weakness in most of the other packaged good plays out there. the company reports this thursday again after the close. i think the expectations are pretty high. i recommend lagging into this one cautiously. wait and see how the quarter goes given the hatred aimed at this group. but now you know the most winning formula in the packaged foods group. do some acquisitions to spur growth. spruce the brands up a little bit and then have the stock market pay for them like b&g

that's what works in a growth-challenged group where only a few are willing to meet or exceed that challenge. i'm here in bristol, virginia. and now...i'm in bristol, tennessee. on this side of the road is virginia... and on this side it's tennessee. no matter which state in the country you live in, you could save hundreds on car insurance by switching to geico. look, i'm in virginia... i'm in tennessee... virginia... see how much you could save on car insurance. or am i in tennaginia?

>> it is time! it's time for the lightning round! that's where i take your calls rapid fire. you tell me the stock. i tell you to buy, buy, buy or sell, sell, sell. we'll play this sound -- [ buzzer ] -- and then the lightning round is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? it's time for the lightning round on cramer's "mad money." let's start with chip in maryland, chip. >> caller: yes, sir. mr. cramer, thanks for taking my call. >> of course. >> caller: i would like your opinion on mgm resorts international. >> that's jim murren, and he's a

we've been behind him ever since he started there. we also like the real estate investment trust. ted in georgia, ted. >> caller: hey, mr. cramer. i'm curious about telaedoc. >> no, no. stay curious but don't pull the trigger. why? there's too much competition. how about aster in california, aster? >> caller: how are you? >> i'm good. >> caller: i wanted info on two questions. is it too high to buy idxx? >> absolutely. no, no. humanization depends on this time, and idexx remains the best of it. let's go to george in new york. george. >> caller: cramer. >> yeah. >> caller: ete. >> no. the only one we're going to like in that group other than -- we like midstream magellan, but we also like enterprise product partners. let's go to harry in new jersey, harry. >> caller: yeah. jim, hfc. >> i like frontier.

refiners as so many others are. i'm saying stay away. i think it's too much of a commodity right now. lindsay in nevada, lindsay. >> caller: ba ba booyah from nevada where both sides of the street are always sunny. jim, i got a bunch of alcoa and don't know how it will shape up. >> no, i want you to buy more alcoa. it's at actionalertsplus.com. we own it for the trust. why? because the split-up is going to be good. we're trying to get much bigger in the stock. i think that the aerospace side is not nearly as bad. they have some teething problems. no mark in wisconsin, mark. >> caller: jim, my stock is bill barrett. >> no. it's a lagger. come on, man, we are much more interested in something like occidental which gives you the yield. that's at my charitable trust if you want to follow along. i need to go to ron in texas. ron. >> caller: hey, jim. thanks for taking my call. >> no problem. >> caller: i just bought your book, "get rich carefully." there's a lot of good insight in there. my question today is, jim, i got

or -- >> no. look, they're fine. we had an ete question earlier. etp is okay. my problem is i want more responsible management, which is why i send you to enterprise product. let's go to brody in utah, brody. >> caller: hey, cramer. >> yo. >> caller: booyah. i just want to thank you first by saying thanks for the opportunity. i'm calling from salt lake city. my stock is ssys. >> stratasys. my problem with stratasys is i like the industrial 3-d, and the guy that's got the best industrial 3-d is hpq, hp inc., which i remain steadfast at the 13 level. how about ken in florida? ken. >> caller: how are, you jim? >> i'm good, ken. how about you? >> caller: very good. particularly having you to listen to me. >> thank you. >> caller: i have two stocks. i have others, but they're not a problem to me.

>> caller: and i've had disney world. that's the main one i'm worried about. >> g.e., i got to tell you i was not thrilled about that quarter. i just think they doubled down -- no, they moved too big in oil and gas at the wrong time. plain and simple. the fact is that disney, i'm banking with iger. he's smarter than i am. he knows what to do with his company. i'm not saying buy. maybe the next two points are down, but the next 20, let's think bigger. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning. [ buzzer ] >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by . i'm good. i just took new mucinex clear and cool. ah! what's this sudden cooooling thing happening? it's got a menthol burst. you can feel it right away. wow, that sort of blind-sided me. and it clears my terrible cold symptoms. ahh! this is awkward. new mucinex fast-max clear & cool. feel the menthol burst. and clear your worst cold symptoms. start the relief. ditch the misery.

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this at&t/time warner deal has correctly taken center stage today because ts $85 billion heft, the largest deal of the year. i know i've talked about this already, but i think that the merger's logic is questionable, and that's assuming it even manages to pass government muster. a very big assumption. it's a deal motivated by fear. at&t's fear that t-mobile and sprint are taking its core business while facebook, google and amazon are always capable of getting into the phone and content game and of course advertising in a big way with lots of free content to

that time warner nor at&t can possibly match. aside from the at&t/time warner transaction, if you look at the plethora of deals from this merger monday, you see a whole ream of transactions that i think make a ton of more sense. for example, how smart is it that rockwell collins, which makes so much flight equipment in the cockpit and the cabin, is shelling out $6.4 billion to buy another company with terrific aircraft franchise? that's b/e aerospace. i've long admired it for its expertise in seating, galley equipment, and onboard lavatories. pretty fabulous. why? because there's basically a three-company oligopoly when it comes to commercial airplanes, and that's boeing, airbus, and bombardier. if you're a supplier of parts, you need some heft to keep these companies from playing you off against your competitors, forcing you to discount your merchandise. acquiring b/e aerospace gives rockwell collins that heft. the company gets more diversification, including diversification away from private jets, which are very weak right now due to the downturn in oil. plus these two enterprises are very much related to the smart plane, a growth business.

they can streamline their sales forces. i love it. same with this amazing deal by the toronto dominion bank and its subsidiary td ameritrade to purchase scott trade for $4 billion, with toronto dominion take scott trade's bank and td ameritrade snaring scott trade's brokerage. in the dog eat dog world of brokers, ameritrade can take out a competitor, cut costs, and i bet keep a lot of the business. again, this is the kind of additive transaction that i adore as opposed to the time warner thing, which is very, very abstruse. everybody wins. what else? i know that people who own genworth might be disappointed with the so-called takeunder by the chinese company oceanwide. but this $5.43-per-share cash deal is exactly double where the stock was just last summer when there were grave concerns about genworth's balance sheet because of the overexposure to the dangers of long-term care insurance. this is an industry where so many assumptions turned out to be wrong when contracts were let, mainly how long people would live and the sky high cost of end of life health care.

holders. congratulations, genworth, for easing a lot of people's minds. these kinds of deals, including the hoped for deal of qualcomm buying nxp semiconductors, a stock we own for my charitable trust that you can find out more about at actionalertsplus.com, is another deal that makes sense. my squawk on the street colleague david faber said today this deal is still very much on track. qualcomm, i believe, would be very right to do the deal because it makes a huge amount of sense. qualcomm is way too tied in with just cell phones while nxpi gives it great diversification the big growth areas of autos. qualcomm's stock has gone higher the whole time these talks have gone on, which is a tremendous sign, one that shows you that it's another win/win scenario. look, the at&t/time warner combination may be really flashy, but to me, it's this tidal wave of other much smaller deals that really matter to the less flashy overall coloration of today's stock market. stick with cramer.

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