Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch For 2014

Wall Street seemed happy to get the second quarter -- especially the month of June -- behind it on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) was up more than 150 points for much of the day after manufacturing data from the U.S. and Japan indicated that global industry is rebounding. Bullish data alone often drives equities higher, but investors anxiously awaiting the beginning of earnings season next week may also contribute to some speculative gains this week. By day's end, the Dow had risen 65 points, or 0.4%, ending at 14,974.

The biggest blue chip beneficiary of Monday's manufacturing rally was United Technologies (NYSE: UTX  ) , which added nearly 2%. Sentiment from Japan's biggest industrials shifted from largely negative to mildly optimistic in June, and that important swing was mirrored in the U.S., where manufacturing activity swung from contraction to expansion.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch 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 Louis Navellier]

  Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) is a staple of consumer products, selling its oral, personal, home care and pet nutrition products in over 200 countries. A nice year-to-date return of 16% has helped keep Colgate stock holders happy all year.

• [By Hesler]

  Colgate-Palmolive Company(NYSE: CL), together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. This dividend champion has raised distributions for 48 years in a row and currently yields 2.80%.

• [By ChuckCarlson]

  Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL), together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. The company has raised distributions for 48 years in a row. The 10 year annual dividend growth rate is 12.40%/year. The last dividend increase was 9.40% to 58 cents/share. Analysts are expecting that Colgate Palmolive will earn $5.52/share in 2012. I expect that the quarterly dividend will be raised to 64 cents/share in 2012. Yield: 2.60%

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch For 2014: 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 Hawkinvest]

  Chevron Corporation (CVX) is a leading integrated energy company with exposure to oil, natural gas, refining, etc. This could be one of the most undervalued stocks in the market. Chevron pays a dividend that beats many other stock and bond yields, plus it has a below market price to earnings ratio of about 8 times earnings. The average stock in the S&P 500 Index currently trades for over 12 times earnings. If oil prices continue to rise, the already healthy profit estimates for Chevron might be too low. With oil prices showing strength this early in the season, Chevron could be poised to beat earnings in the coming months. However, the stock is trading at the upper end of the recent trading range. Recently, it has been possible to buy this stock at about $102 per share, so waiting for dips could pay off.

  Here are some key points for CVX:

  Current share price: $104.25

  The 52 week range is $85.63 to $110.01

  Earnings estimates for 2012: $12.66 per share

  Earnings estimates for 2013: $13.20 per share

  Annual dividend: $3.42 per share which yields 3.1%

• [By Louis Navellier]

  Chevron (NYSE:CVX) provides support to its subsidiaries in the following fields: petroleum operations, chemicals operations, mining operations, power generation and energy services. While many stocks on the NYSE have underperformed in 2011, Chevron stock is up 8% year to date.

Top 5 Gold Companies To Own In Right Now: 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 Jim Cramer]

  When this company talked about lofty EPS for 2015, initially the street was skeptical especially after IBM reported a blah quarter soon after the expectations were laid out. I now think the company has $20 earnings per share capabilities out three years and that $13 is doable for 2011. You keep the multiple the same and you get a $169 stock. I think it does just that. This one's cheap, way too cheap and it will be cheap next year, too, but on a bigger earnings base which is how it can get to my price target.

• [By Louis Navellier]

  IBM (NYSE:IBM) is an international IT company made famous by its line of personal computers and various IT services. A year-to-date gain of 18% shows IBM stock has a lot to offer.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch 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 Brian Gorban]

   Fast food giant and world-renowned company McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) is undoubtedly a name you’ve heard of, as “the golden arches” are ubiquitous--and with good reason: The company operates over 33,000 restaurants in 119 countries. With over $27 billion in revenue and a market capitalization near $90 billion, McDonald’s is simply a juggernaut and should continue to be a beneficiary of the global growth story happening predominately in the “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries in the years and decades to come.

  Of course, those countries have not been spared the current economic carnage and that has caused the company to miss the past two quarters’ consensus estimates, but that has created a buying opportunity. With the stock trading not far above its $83.31 52-week low, McDonald’s is now yielding an attractive 3.5% dividend yield, and with a low 54% payout ratio, look for the dividend to not only be safe but be raised in the near future. Add in the fact that the company has a comparatively and historically low 16x forward and trailing P/E, and I think MCD should serve investors well for the long-term while one can wait and happily collect the nice 3.5% dividend.

• [By JON C. OGG]

  McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is at $85.08 and analysts have a consensus price target objective of $97.68.  It carries a 2.9% dividend yield and the stock is down 5% from its 52-week high.  McDonald’s trades at close to 6-times book value, but its return on equity is 37%.  S&P carries an “A” local long-term rating on the Golden Arches.  In the “you gotta eat somewhere” theory, McDonald’s seems to keep winning over and over and its shares and same-store sales keep rising handily.

• [By ETF_Authority]

  McDonald’s Corporation (MCD), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a foodservice retailer worldwide. The company has raised distributions for 35 years in a row. The 10 year annual dividend growth rate is 26.50%/year. The last dividend increase was 14.75% to 70 cents/share. Analysts are expecting that McDonald's will earn $5.73/share in 2012. I expect that the quarterly dividend will reach 77 cents/share in 2012. Yield: 2.80%

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch 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 Kathy Kristof]

  Headquarters: Cupertino, Cal.
  
  52-Week High: $701.91
  
  52-Week Low: $362.02
  
  Annual Sales: $108.3 bill.
  
  Projected Earnings Growth: 23% annually over the next five years 
  
  Apple led Kiplinger’s list of top stocks back in January 2011, when its share price was a mere $330. And at more than double that price today, Apple shares still appear to be bargain-priced. 
  
  The stock has a number of additional catalysts. The company just won a patent suit against arch rival Samsung that is likely to force Apple’s key competitors to revamp their handsets. The verdict couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Millions of Apple loyalists are ready to upgrade to Apple’s new iPhone, introduced on September 12. Moreover, Apple has barely cracked China’s market, which is likely to generate additional profit growth for years to come. 
  
  Of course, Apple can’t maintain an astronomical growth rate forever. But even if the company can simply achieve analysts' expectations for the next three to five years, you’ll want to have the stock in your portfolio for a long time to come.

• [By Scott Rothbort]

  Apple(AAPL), which I included on my previous list of low-PEG stocks, remains one of the cheapest stocks around. The stock has still managed to increase in value over 16% this year, despite falling 12% since reaching an all-time high in October.

  The iPhone 4S is a huge success. In 2012, the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are likely to get introduced. The company's computers continue to grab market share away from Windows-based systems. The December quarter is expected to be the company's best ever. Earnings are expected to grow by 25% in 2011 and 12% in 2012. Yet the stock trades at just under 10 times 2012 earnings.

  Apple's raw beta is 0.77

  Apple shows up on recent lists of 5 Gadget Stocks for the Holidays and 9 Top Goldman Sachs Stocks for 2012.