CVS Caremark (CVS), which competes with Walgreen (WAG), Rite Aid (RAD), and Wal-Mart (WMT), posted fourth-quarter data on Monday. Sales increased 7%, and adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations (excluding, in addition, a penny per share relating to a tax benefit) came in at 78 cents -- good for a growth rate of over 11%. That bottom-line performance matched analyst projections, according to our earnings preview.

As we all know, matching expectations is sometimes the death of a stock. The market has no conscience when it comes to mercilessly punishing an equity for not going beyond the call of the analysts. However, CVS actually did pretty well yesterday, rising 5% by the end of the session; the move was backed by healthy volume.

U.S. stock futures were lower higher Monday morning as concerns about the debt situation in Europe continued to weigh on sentiment. The Dow industrials, it seems, for now will continue to flirt with the 10,000 level, following general declines in U.S. stocks markets last week.

[Update: So far this morning futures have changed direction several times as investors try to find a firm footing.]

Stocks slumped last as worries mounted over debt problems in Greece, Portugal and Spain and a mixed bag of economic indicators in the U.S. Meanwhile, concerns over Greece abated somewhat as the government worked Monday on a tax overhaul aimed at getting its deficit under control.

CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS), the largest retail pharmacy chain in the U.S., is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter financial results in a conference call Monday, Feb. 8, at 8:30 AM (ET). An audio webcast of the call will be available at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in December, CVS announced share buybacks, named a new head of HR and provided H1N1 flu shots nationwide. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings for that period of $0.78 per share. That compares with $0.65 per share in the previous quarter and $0.70 per share a year ago. Revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be 8.6% higher than a year ago to $26.2 billion.

Is the market overpriced? Maybe it is cheap, or perhaps it is fairly valued. This is the third in a series examining the issue. Still, it has been my contention that it does not make any difference because no matter how the market is valued as a whole, there are plenty of cheap stocks out there to accommodate a large amount of capital allocation even this deep into a bull run.

If you would like to follow along from the beginning, the initial post screened stocks for lower than market average P/E ratios: Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks. In the second installment, I looked at yield and PEG ratios: Serious Money: Still Cheap Market -- 35 Stocks + Yields & Growth.

Let's try and reduce the gambling by examining the facts and ignoring what the bulls and bears are chatting up at the moment. We started the process by screening for lower than market average P/E ratios, see: Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks.

Two more important criteria influence today's review: the yield, a favorite of "my pal Warren"; and the price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) a focus of Peter Lynch, the retired fund manager extraordinaire of Fidelity's Magellan Fund.

We frequently receive comments that the market is overpriced. Recently one of our active readers commented that the market P/E was 30, which it's not. The actual rate (S&P forecast) has been even higher at times due to the volatile market.

The average should trend closer to the long term P/E of 15.7 in the next few years. However, I have reviewed companies often covered on our site and come up with a list of 35 stocks that have price-to-earning ratios below the long-term average already. I think there are dozens of bargains regardless of the status of the overall market.

I'm reiterating my buy ratings the nation's two premier drug store chains: CVS Caremark (CVS), first recommended on February 16, 2009, at a price of $27.30; and Walgreen (WAG), first recommended on February 17, 2009, at a price of $25.46. If you bought CVS in February, you're up 25%; WAG, up about 40%.

As expected, each has performed well on increased store traffic stemming from the H1N1 flu virus (trips to purchase hand sanitizers, other disinfecting items, and flu symptom comforts), which has offset reduced traffic for other drug store trips, due to the U.S. recession.

Walgreen (WAG), a drugstore chain that competes with CVS Caremark (CVS) and Rite Aid (RAD), issued fiscal Q1 numbers on Monday. The growth rates were impressive.

Total sales were up 9.5%. Net income increased almost 20% to 49 cents per diluted share. Operational cash flow was higher by over three times. According to our earnings preview, analysts were expecting 48 cents per share. Of course, since there were restructuring charges included in the above per-share profit stat (equal to 3 cents per share), the beat is better than it looks. This was indeed a good quarter.

Rite Aid (RAD), whose colleagues include CVS Caremark (CVS) and Walgreen (WAG), reported third-quarter results on Thursday. Although they did show improvement, I think most investors would be better off staying away from the stock.

According to this summary at Reuters, top-line sales decreased a little under 2%, and the loss per share came in at 10 cents. This was a lot better than the 30 cents per share lost in the comparable quarter. Expectations were for the red ink to be closer to 18 cents per share.

CVS|Caremark (CVS - option chain) shares are rising today on news that the company won a new $1 billion contract with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to provide pharmacy benefits for two years, with four optional one-year renewals. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CVS.

CVS opened this morning at $31.80. So far today the stock has hit a low of $31.80 and a high of $32.43. As of 11:55, CVS is trading at $32.20 up 70 cents (2.2%). The chart for CVS looks bullish and S&P gives CVS a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

Want to know if your stock is overpriced, maybe ready to take a breather? Then check its PEG. That's Price to Earnings to Growth, or the P/E ratio divided by the growth rate of a company's earnings. It's a quick and easy way to see if your stock may be ahead of its earnings power. It's also one measure a lot of momentum investors rely on as a screening tool.

If a stock's P/E ratio is well above its growth rate, they believe the stock is overpriced and won't touch it. But if the p/e ratio is well below the stock's growth rate, it could signal a bargain. It helps to know your stock's PEG.

I'm reiterating Buy ratings for giant drug store chains CVS-Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) on likely increased store traffic, due to the H1N1 flu.

So far, the nation is doing fairly well at ensuring that there will be enough swine flu vaccine for key populations --those who could quickly spread the virus like teachers, health care workers, emergency personnel etc., as well as other risk groups -- pregnant women, people caring for infants, people aged 25-64 who are at high risk due to compromised immune systems.

If you are one of the investors out there watching General Motors stock each day trying to pick the perfect time to buy the stock... don't! For whatever reason, people have continued to buy General Motors stock, despite the fact that the company and the government have issued warnings that the stock is destined to be worthless.

I read an interesting article that reported yesterday there were 12.6 million shares of General Motors traded. Maybe people do not realize that the company went into bankruptcy, or maybe they are just trying to profit off of traders that are not aware that this is not new General Motors stock, but the volumes are a bit curious.

"Regardless of how you analyze the company, CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) stands out," says Chuck Carlson.

In The DRIP Investor, he explains, "Our Quadrix stock-rating system ranks more than 4,000 stocks based on more than 100 different variables. CVS scores better than 90% of the stocks in the Quadrix universe."

"CVS's Sector score -- that is, a score devised by evaluating the metrics that have the most influence over performance in that particular sector -- is also impressive at 95 out of a possible 100.

Do hang onto to those CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) shares, to say the least: I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for the company, first recommended on February 16, 2009 at a price of $27.30.

CVS, a classic defensive, is performing well, despite choppy macroeconomic conditions. Nothing has occurred within the last half-year to suggest that CVS will not be able to successfully incorporate recent acquisitions, and increase sales in key, new growth markets in the U.S.