Regardless of why a stock is in the news, it never hurts to hear what a professional investor has to say about it. The key is to gather as much information as you can in order to make the most informed investment decisions you can. As Jim Cramer (read an excerpt from his new book here) often reminds, investors must do their homework.

So what has Cramer had to say lately about today’s headline-makers? At Stockpickr, we’ve combed through his recent RealMoney blog posts, “Mad Money” TV show recaps and “Stop Trading!” segments to find out what he thinks about some of today’s newsworthy stocks.

CVS Caremark(CVS Quote): CVS earned a record $1.05 million, or 74 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with 65 cents a share a year ago.

In his “Mad Money” show on Friday, Cramer said he’d be watching CVS on Monday for signs of a turnaround at the company. Cramer said positive news could turn him positive on the stock.

Toyota Motor(TM Quote): Toyota said over the weekend that it would soon release plans to deal with brake problems in its Prius hybrid.

On Friday’s “Lightning Round” segment, Cramer called Toyota a “battleground stock” and said he preferred Ford, which is said is “going like gangbusters.” “Ford is back,” Cramer said.

In a Feb. 4 post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer wrote:

“Toyota could have handled this in a way that I think we would not have even noticed. Of course, now it is all we can talk about and I think that Ford is simply going to roll all over Toyota and I am reiterating that Ford will be the biggest car company in the world in five years.”

And in a Feb. 3 blog post, Cramer wrote that “the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ month was the slowest in the last three months for Ford, and that’s before the recall (which, by the way, is going to be far more crushing to Toyota than people realize … unless they own one of the recalled cars, as I do.)”

Airgas(ARG Quote): KeyBanc downgraded Airgas to hold from buy.

In a Feb. 5 blog post, Cramer wrote:

“I am in disbelief that Air Products(APD Quote) is making a tender offer for Airgas. I am very fond of both companies but rarely have two high-performance well-run companies had to duke it out. I think that the merger is uncompetitive and should be blocked. More importantly, Peter McCausland, who has been on my show more than any other CEO, has made fortunes for his investors. Hate to see him and his company go.”

Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote): Collins Stewart upgraded Exxon to buy from hold with an $80 price target.

On Feb. 5, Cramer wrote on his blog:

“It’s amusing to see the bears on the parade grounds, ignoring the household survey number — so important, the most important of the payroll figures — and now strutting around with the oil futures, making a phenomenal bear case based on $70 not holding.

“To which I say, we have been there before, and these stocks are starting to get cheap, cheap, cheap. Now, I am not just speaking of natural gas, which has taken a real beating in the press and seems to be pilloried constantly in part because the president is so obviously anti-natural-gas he can’t even utter the two words together. I am talking about the integrated oils and the large drilling- services companies, because these companies should not trade on every tick of the futures as they do.

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