Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe Dow Jones news ticker in Times Square, New York City. NEW YORK -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group (GS), credit-card company Visa (V), and footwear Nike (NKE) will join the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) Dow Jones industrial average, the index managers said Tuesday, in the biggest shake-up for the 30-stock average in nearly a decade. The three companies will replace Bank of America (BAC), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Alcoa (AA), all lower-priced stocks that exert a lesser pull on the price-weighted index. The changes will be effective on Sept. 23, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a statement. The average, first established in 1896, includes 30 stocks, but very little money is indexed to its performance, unlike the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (^GSPC) or other indexes. In addition, because it is weighted by price, companies that are smaller in value with higher prices have more influence on the average. "Wow, those are big changes," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, N.Y. "The Dow is really an antiquated index. It is price-weighted, which makes no sense. But there are still are some people that pay attention to it, and some technicians, so it has an influence on some people." Google (GOOG) and other names were considered for inclusion but passed over because of high stock prices, David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the S&P Index Committee, told CNBC. The index manager said the changes were prompted by the low stock price of the three companies slated for removal and a desire to diversify the make-up of the index. Alcoa, in particular, has been seen as a candidate for elimination for some time, as the stock's market value of $8.5 billion is easily the lowest in the average. It is the first three-for-three change to the index since April 8, 2004, when American International Group (AIG), Pfizer (PFE) and Verizon (VZ) replaced AT&T (T), Eastman Kodak and International Paper (IP).

Best Casino Stocks To Invest In 2015: Chevron Corporation(CVX)

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It a lso produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sarfaraz A. Khan]

  The world�� largest offshore drilling contractor and one of the leading drilling management services providers Transocean (RIG) has joined the coveted S&P-500 Index on Monday. The company has replaced the struggling PC manufacturer Dell. This comes just a few days after Transocean announced a five-year contract with Chevron (CVX) to construct a new state-of-the art ultra-deepwater drillship. The delivery of the vessel is expected in the second quarter of 2016. The vessel will require investment of $725 million and will bring $1.1 billion as revenues. The construction of the drillship is expected to begin in fourth quarter of 2014 in Okpo, South Korea, where the company has a long history of operations. It has developed five enterprise-class drill ships at that facility and it currently has six other ultra-deepwater rigs under construction.
  

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Richard Drew/AP NEW YORK -- The stock market started November on a strong note as investors reacted to an expansion in U.S. manufacturing last month. The improvement came during what could have been a difficult month for the U.S. economy, with a partial government shutdown that lasted 16 days and a narrowly averted default on the U.S. government's debt, which could have rattled financial markets. "With what happened in the last two months, it's amazing how strong this market has been," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing index increased to 56.4, the highest level since April 2011. That was better than the 55.1 figure economists were expecting, according financial data provider FactSet. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) rose 69.80 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,615.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) rose 5.10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,761.64. The Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose 2.34 points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,922.04. Energy stocks lagged the market after Chevron (CVX) reported that its third-quarter income fell 6 percent, missing analysts' estimates, due to weakness in the company's oil refining business. Chevron fell $1.95, or 1.6 percent, to $118.01. The energy sector was also weighed down by a drop in the price of oil. Crude oil fell $1.77, or 1.8 percent, to $94.61 a barrel. The positive start to this month's trading comes after a strong October for the stock market. The S&P 500 closed at a record high seven times during the month, most recently on Tuesday. It ended October with a gain of 4.5 percent. However, some investors have expressed skepticism that stocks can keep up this rapid pace pace heading into the last two months of the year. The S&P 500 is up 23 percent so far this year, while the average annual return on the S&P 500 is around 8 percent. Stocks are also starting to look expensive by some measures. Investo

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top Headline
  Chevron (NYSE: CVX) reported a 5.8 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings.

  Chevron's quarterly profit fell to $4.95 billion, or $2.57 per share, from a year-ago profit of $5.25 billion, or $2.69 per share.

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Tale of the tape
  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) will be a 34-year veteran of the Dow by the end of next month. Based in the suburbs north of New York City, IBM has been producing cutting-edge technology for over a century, which gives it real claim to the title of "World's Oldest Tech Company." IBM employs over 430,000 people, but it's remarkably nimble for such a massive company. "Nonstrategic" parts of IBM's business worth a total of $15 billion in annual revenue have been divested over the past decade, and its three major new initiatives (Smarter Planet, data analytics, and cloud services) all enjoyed double-digit revenue growth in 2012. Due to the Dow's price-weighting system, IBM is its single most important component -- a move in IBM stock prices will have several times the impact of a move in nearly every other stock on the Dow.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) jumped 5.2% this week after the company increased its share buyback program by $5 billion and increased its dividend payment from $0.85 to $0.95 per quarter. In an interview late this week, Warren Buffett said he wouldn't be selling shares of IBM after the company's disappointing earnings in the first quarter. He also said he "may have added a little bit" of the company's stock in the first quarter, another long-term positive for the tech giant. �

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: Visa Inc.(V)

Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company owns and operates VisaNet, a global processing platform that provides transaction processing services. It also offers a range of payments platforms, which enable credit, charge, deferred debit, debit, and prepaid payments, as well as cash access for consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company provides its payment platforms under the Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS, and Interlink brand names. In addition, it offers value-added services, including risk management, issuer processing, loyalty, dispute management, value-added information, and CyberSource-branded services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams, Travis Hoium, and Alex Planes]

  In that spirit, we three Fools have banded together to find the market's best and worst stocks, which we'll rate on�The Motley Fool's CAPS�system as outperformers or underperformers. We'll be accountable for every pick based on the sum of our knowledge and the balance of our decisions. Today, we'll be discussing Visa (NYSE: V  ) , the world's largest electronic payment processing network.

• [By DealNews]

  Ben Husmann/Flickr The words "friendly" and "fraud" may not seem to go together, but friendly fraud -- also known as chargeback fraud -- is a real problem for a lot of online merchants. Friendly fraud happens when a customer fraudulently reports to their financial institution that a charge on their credit card isn't legitimate; the customer will typically be refunded the money immediately, leaving the merchant on the hook for the cash. Friendly fraud may be intentional theft, like shoplifting, but some customers may do it accidentally -- reporting a charge because they don't realize another member of their household made the purchase or the charge information on their statement doesn't match up to a recognized retailer name, which can happen if the retailer uses a third-party payment system like PayPal. With identity theft at an all-time high and banks eager to reassure consumers that their identity (and their money) is safe with fraud protection guarantees, it's become increasingly easy for cardholders to use these protections to commit fraud. Retailers Shoulder the Burden Whether chargeback fraud is intentional or not, retailers are losing billions; Visa estimates $11.8 billion was lost to friendly fraud in 2012. For online merchants, who never physically swiped a card, it can be difficult to prove that a charge was legitimate -- making chargebacks a game of he said, she said, where the customer usually wins. What's more, if a merchant has more than 1 percent of their charges reversed as chargebacks, they can find themselves shut down by Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) -- which can mean going out of business entirely. As a result, businesses are fighting friendly fraud in a lot of different ways. To protect themselves from chargebacks, many merchants require customers to enter credit or debit card' security codes in order to prove ownership and physical access to the card. Some merchants will only ship to the address associated with a charge card, which ca

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)

McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mark Yagalla]

  What's all the excitement over Waffle Tacos?
  The Waffle Taco is part of Taco Bell's effort to capture business from McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) . Besides the Waffle Taco, Taco Bell's breakfast menu includes Cinnabon Delights, a Breakfast Burrito, A.M. Crunchwrap, and the A.M. Grilled Taco. These items came from the imagination of Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed, who is moving up to become the new CEO of Yum! Brands this January.

• [By Andrew Marder]

  Unlike J. Crew and Tory Burch, the reason I want in on Five Guys is for the beautiful simplicity of the business. Murrell now oversees a business that should generate over $1 billion in revenue in 2013. While the company is still far short of McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) $6.6 billion, Five Guys seems to be managing a feat that McDonald's has failed at over the last few quarters: growth.

• [By Kelley Wright]

  Based on this criteria, here are our current Timely Ten selections:

  Chevron Corp. (CVX)��ielding 3.3%
  
  CVS Caremark (CVS)��ielding 1.6%
  
  Coca-Cola (KO)��ielding 2.9%
  
  Baxter International (BAX)��ielding 3.0%
  
  Walgreen (WAG)��ielding 2.3%
  
  McDonalds Corp. (MCD)��ielding 3.3%
  
  PepsiCo (PEP)��ielding 2.8%
  
  ExxonMobil (XOM)��ielding 2.9%
  
  Occidental Petroleum (OXY)��ielding 2.7%
  
  Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)��ielding 2.5%
  
  

  Subscribe to Investment Quality Trends here��/P>

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  These are challenging times for McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) . The world's largest burger chain is posting negative comps, likely positioning it to deliver its first full year of declining same-restaurant sales since 2002. However, let's not assume that the Golden Arches will be forever tarnished. Let's go over a few things that could go right for McDonald's stock in the coming quarters.

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: Colgate-Palmolive Company(CL)

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. It offers oral care products, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouth rinses, as well as dental floss and pharmaceutical products for dentists and other oral health professionals; personal care products, such as liquid hand soap, shower gels, bar soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, shampoos, and conditioners; and home care products comprising laundry and dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, bleaches, dishwashing liquids, and oil soaps. The company offers its oral, personal, and home care products under the Colgate Total, Colgate Max Fresh, Colgate 360 Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Andres Cardenal:�Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , generates most of its sales and cash flows from its leadership position in the oral care industry. Management estimates that the company owns a global market share of 44.4% in toothpastes, 33.2% in toothbrushes, and 38.9% in mouthwashes.

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) is a top consumer staples name to make the UBS. Colgate sells its products in more than 200 countries and makes more than 75% of its revenue outside the United States, which provides geographic diversification and growth opportunities in emerging markets for the company. This diversity, matched with a huge list of consumer products, keeps revenues and dividends growing. Investors are paid a 2.3% dividend. The consensus target is $67.14. Colgate closed Tuesday at $64.34.

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: Apple Inc.(AAPL)

Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications worldwide. The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. In addition, it sells third-party Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and other accessories and peripherals through its online and retail stores; and digital content and applications through the iTunes Store. The company sells its products to consumer, small and mid-sized business, education, enterprise, government, and creative markets. As of September 25, 2010, it had 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. The company, formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Nate Pile]

  Steve Halpern: A really good example of your long-term approach is how you built positions in Apple (AAPL), not just focusing on the stock over the course of weeks or months, but having followed the company and built positions over many years. Could you share your thoughts on the company?

• [By Jonathan Berr]

  Sure, Amazon stock analysts think AMZN is a buy. But I simply can’t wrap my head around the fact that Amazon stock trades at disgusting 140 times expected 2014 earnings. That’s a huge premium to Google�(GOOG) stock, which has also been going strong, yet sports a multiple of just 20. And Apple�(AAPL) stock goes for just 11 times forward earnings.

• [By Jacob Steinberg]

  First of all, comparing the number of Lumias sold to the number of all mobile phones sold to reach a market share value of 1% is pretty misleading. The same calculation puts Apple's (AAPL) market share below 8%. We all know that when calculating a phone's market share, we can't look at all phones in the world because smartphones have a separate market than feature phones, some of which may sell for as cheap as $20. This is like saying Porsche has a market share way below 0.1% in the car market, when in fact, Porsche's market share should only be calculated against luxury cars, not all cars. If we look at all mobile phones, Nokia's market share nears 20% rather than 1%.

• [By Rex Moore]

  The much-hyped Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone will be available in the U.S. beginning this week with some carriers. In this multipart series, Fool analysts Rex Moore and Andrew Tonner talk about what the launch means in the marketplace. Today, they discuss whether BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) is falling farther behind Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) .

Top Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014: Philip Morris International Inc(PM)

Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside of the United States. Its international product brand line comprises Marlboro, Merit, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M, Chesterfield, Bond Street, Lark, Muratti, Next, Philip Morris, and Red & White. The company also offers its products under the A Mild, Dji Sam Soe, and A Hijau in Indonesia; Diana in Italy; Optima and Apollo-Soyuz in the Russian Federation; Morven Gold in Pakistan; Boston in Colombia; Belmont, Canadian Classics, and Number 7 in Canada; Best and Classic in Serbia; f6 in Germany; Delicados in Mexico; Assos in Greece; and Petra in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It operates primarily in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. The company is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Diane Alter]

  Dividend Stocks That Increased Payout in September

  Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) announced a 14.8%, or $0.12 per share, increase to its semiannual dividend. The management consulting firm will now pay a semiannual dividend of $0.93. Shares yield 2.53%. Agruim Inc. (NYSE: AGU) boosted its dividend by $1.00 per share to a total dividend of $3.00 on an annualized basis. Shares of the global retailer of agricultural products now sprout a 3.54% yield. Air Industries Group Inc. (NYSE: AIRI) doubled its dividend to $0.125 per share. The maker of airplane and helicopter parts now floats a lofty yield of 6.6%. Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE) upped its dividend 4.6% to $0.68 per quarter for a yield of 4.21%. Banner Corp. (Nasdaq: BANR) boosted its quarterly dividend 25% to $0.15 per share. The parent company of Banner and Islander Bank serves the Pacific Northwest region. Brady Corp. (NYSE: BRC) lifted its quarterly dividend 2.6% to $0.78 per share. It was the 28th straight dividend increase from the identification solutions company. Shares yield 2.57%. Campbell Soup Co. (NSE: CPB) raised its quarterly dividend to $0.31 per share, up from $0.29. The company last raised its dividend in November 2010. Shares yield a hearty 3.06%. CLARCOR Inc. (NYSE: CLC) raised its quarterly dividend 26% to $0.17 per share. It's the largest percentage increase from the Tennessee-based diversified marketer of mobile filtration and packaging products in the last 20 years, and it continues the company's consecutive streak of increasing dividends for the last 30 years. Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) boosted its quarterly dividend 2.6% to $0.10 per share. Frisch's Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: FRS) increased its quarterly dividend 12.5% to $0.18. Shares yield 3.10% The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: GT), in a move that suggests good times are ahead, reinstated its dividend at $0.05 per share. Good
• [By Tim McAleenan Jr.]

  And lastly, Mankiw mentions emerging markets. If you want to bet against the United States dollar and own a company that generates all of its profits outside the United States, it could be useful to take a look at Philip Morris International (PM). Asia makes up 37% of its profits. The Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe make up 27% of its profits. Smoking rates in countries like Indonesia are increasing at 10-25% annual rates. The Marlboro brand is gaining market share in Asia. The company is planning aggressive expansion into Central Africa. If you want emerging markets exposure, Philip Morris International could be a decent way to cover your bases.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Similarly, in 2008, Altria spun off its Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) unit. In that case, Philip Morris represented the larger portion of the business, making up almost 70% of the overall value of the pre-merger company. Again, the dividends that Altria paid after the merger were in line with the domestic segment's previous share of payouts.