Not a Stockpickr member? Join the community today -- for free.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 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.

Altria (MO): Altria's Philip Morris USA division is suing 10 retailers for allegedly selling fake Marlboro cigarettes.

On his Nov. 16 "Mad Money" show, Cramer gave the nod to several stocks in the wake of Ben Bernanke's Fed speech. These included high-yielders such as Altria, which Cramer owns for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust, Kinder Morgan (KMP) and ConEd (ED).

On Nov. 13 on "Stop Trading!" Cramer said that Altria was the pure play on news that the number of smokers was on the rise.

Cooper Industries (CBE): FBR upgraded Cooper Industries, which Cramer owns for Action Alerts PLUS, to market perform from underperform due to restructuring efforts an international growth.

In a post yesterday to his RealMoney blog, Cramer addressed Bank of America/Merrill Lynch's downgrades of Intel (INTC) and Texas Instruments (TXN):

"But I think that if we start looking at Intel and Texas Instruments as big cyclical plays levered more to worldwide growth than to the current tone of the PC or cellphone businesses, we will better understand 1) why they have been strong and 2) why they will remain strong. I would no more sell Intel on this downgrade than I would sell a Honeywell (HON) or a United Tech (UTX) or a Cooper. The world's economies are getting too strong to obey these downgrades and consider these two companies as if they have had huge runs that are now over."
Cramer also owns Honeywell for Action Alerts PLUS.

Goldman Sachs (GS): According to The Wall Street Journal, some of Goldman's biggest shareholders
aren't pleased with the large bonuses Goldman intends to pay out this year and are putting pressure on management.

On his RealMoney blog yesterday, Cramer wrote:

"In other words, we are in a territory where we deserve to be higher, and we are higher, but on an individual day like today, when an analyst says that a hot group like the semis should cool off because business is turning sluggish, we hastily recalibrate how high we should be. When oil is down big, we question the Baltic Freight Index and we figure things can't be that strong, even as we have had the same reaction, "Groundhog Day"-like, each time oil goes down $2 toward $75. When we have the biggest bank, Bank of America (BAC), trying endlessly to get a CEO, and the best investment-banking house, Goldman Sachs, under tremendous assault, it's hard to see the stocks of the other banks doing well."

He continued that "with the fundamentals of the three-legged stool of banks, tech and oil in question, you get an on-the-spot downshift and, underneath, a retreat to the Procter & Gambles (PG), McDonald's (MCD), General Mills (GIS) and WellPoint (WLP) (the latter because health care reform, Senate style, just doesn't hurt 'em)."

Cramer owns Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble stocks for Action Alerts PLUS.

On "Stop Trading!" on Wednesday, Cramer said Goldman Sachs needs to replace its guilt with pride because it does a "good job," creating wealth for its clients. He told viewers that the government, not Goldman itself, should "answer for why it helped Goldman."

Toll Brothers (TOL): Homebuilder stocks such as Toll Brothers and Pulte Homes (PHM) were falling on Friday after D.R. Horton (DHI) reported a bigger-than-expected loss.

In a Nov. 12 blog post, Cramer said the market has been up for six consecutive days "on nothing." He continued: "What has happened this week before today? Macy's (M) reported? Priceline (PCLN)? Toll Brothers? I don't think they control, even as they had pretty big movements after their news."

And on "Stop Trading!" on Nov. 11, Cramer said that Toll Brothers' conference call gave signs that supported what he'd been saying for months: that stabilization "is very much with us," signaling the "end of the crisis" for Wells Fargo (WFC), another Action Alerts PLUS stock, and Bank of America. Toll's low cancellation rate of 6% -- the same it was during the 2005 housing boom -- "means there's a lot of available mortgage money" and "mortgage rates are low," said Cramer.

For more of what Cramer's had to say lately about stocks in the news, check out the Cramer's Take portfolio.

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(Editor's note: At the time of publication, Cramer owned Altria, Honeywell, Cooper, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Procter & Gamble for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)