I'd like to know more about how to appraise stocks.

I'm kind of new to investing, and I'd like to start an emergency fund and keep it in a brokerage account. I'm not trying to get rich or anything, so I'm mainly interested in slow and steady growth; indexes, mutual funds and ETF's. Problem is, I don't know how to research them properly.

When I look up a stock ticker I see PE, and Div/Yield, EPS, etc. I (kind of) know what they mean individually, but I don't feel like I've got a good understanding of how they all work together.

Can anyone either point me in the right direction, or give me a rough rundown on how to better understand these better? I've read the sidebar, nothing there seems to have the information I'm looking for.