Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own For 2014

After a surprising burst over the last week that sent shares to record highs once again, Wall Street fell back slightly today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) closed down 32 points or 0.2%. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) disappointed in its earnings report, as the beverage giant dropped 1.9%, the blue chips' worst performer today. The secular decline in U.S. soda consumption seems to be finally catching up with the world's most valuable brand, as unadjusted profits fell 4%. In addition to weak U.S. sales, the company blamed bad weather, including cold and wet conditions in the U.S. and flooding in Europe, for the poor quarter. Soda volume fell by 4% in North America, but the company still finished with an adjusted earnings per share of $0.63, in line with estimates. Revenue was down 2.5% to $12.75 billion, missing estimates of $12.95 billion.

On the economic slate, the June consumer price index was up 0.5%, above expectations, but the core rate grew just 0.2%, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, indicating that inflation is under control. Last month's figures for industrial production and capacity utilization came in essentially in line with estimates, and the National Association of Home Builders' Housing Market Index jumped to 57, ahead of expectations of 51, indicating that the housing market remains strong despite rising interest rates.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Mick Weinstein]

  ��What does McDonald's (MCD) �need to do to recover its momentum?

• [By Sean Williams]

  Last year was rough for much of the restaurant industry, but fast-food giant McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) had seen considerably tougher challenges before. It has thrived through countless recessions by focusing on its value menu to drive new and repeat customers into its restaurants, modifying its menu to suit ever-changing palates, and remodeling its restaurants to appeal to both family-oriented and younger crowds.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Other earnings highlights in the coming week include Dow components McDonald�� Corp. (MCD) , DuPont (DD) , AT&T Inc. (T) , and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) . Notable S&P 500 companies include Halliburton Co. (HAL) , Netflix Inc. (NFLX) �, Amgen Inc. (AMGN) �, TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) �, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) �, Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) �, Ford Motor Co. (F) �, Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) �, and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) �

• [By Andrew Marder]

  Walking a thin line
  The difficulty that Wendy's has had, and will continue to have, I think, is that it's very hard to be all things to all people. The idea of being the better burger chain means that Wendy's is going to be competing not only with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) and Burger King, but also Five Guys and In-and-Out Burger.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Dan Burrows]

  Rival Colgate-Palmolive (CL) has different concerns, namely sluggishness in emerging markets where it enjoys commanding market share and derives more than half its revenue.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Colgate-Palmolive
  Toothpaste and toothbrushes may not be exciting business, but it's consistent and consumers tend to develop habits they rarely break. Once they find a toothpaste brand they like, it could be years before they try another one. That leads to another incredibly consistent business for Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , one that has paid back investors with a dividend since 1895. �

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Other earnings highlights in the coming week include Dow components McDonald�� Corp. (MCD) , DuPont (DD) , AT&T Inc. (T) , and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) . Notable S&P 500 companies include Halliburton Co. (HAL) , Netflix Inc. (NFLX) �, Amgen Inc. (AMGN) �, TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) �, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) �, Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) �, Ford Motor Co. (F) �, Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) �, and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) �

• [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]

  Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  )
  Colgate's shares are trading well below the $62 high they hit just last month. The consumer goods company is heavily levered to international sales, with more than 80% of its business coming from outside the U.S. and more than half coming from emerging markets.

Best Growth Stocks 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 Helix Investment Research]

  We note that Keating Capital's co-investors in many of its portfolio companies are not simply other venture capital or existing investors, but strategic investors as well. Examples include Agilyx, where Waste Management (WM) is a co-investor, BrightSource, where Chevron (CVX) and BP (BP) are co-investors, Kabam, where Google (GOOG) and Intel (INTC) are co-investors, or Tremor Video (TRMR), where Time Warner (TWX) is a co-investor. As of the end of Q2 2013, 9 (excluding Jumptap) of Keating Capital's portfolio companies had unrealized gains, with an average gain of 25.6% (again excluding Jumptap, which had unrealized gains of 8% as of the end of Q2 2013). The remaining 6 companies had an average loss of 44.46%. However, on an overall basis, Keating Capital's portfolio currently has an average unrealized gain of 2.15%. While this is not a large gain, we note that the bulk of Keating Capital's profits are realized upon exiting an investment in conjunction with the portfolio company's IPO or sale. Furthermore, portions of Keating Capital's portfolio are defended by structurally protected appreciation clauses that the company has struck with its portfolio companies, clauses that are not reflected on its balance sheet. These clauses, which are negotiated between Keating Capital and its portfolio companies, allow the company to receive shares in the portfolio company's IPO at a discount, or grant it warrants to purchase additional shares in an IPO for a nominal price. Since inception, Keating Capital has negotiated structurally protected appreciation clauses in 11 of the 20 companies it has invested in. As of the end of Q2 2013, 6 of Keating Capital's 15 portfolio companies were protected by structurally protected appreciation clauses, representing $22 million in total capital (almost 43% of the company's invested capital), thereby entitling Keating Capital to a weighted-average aggregate value of 1.9x its investment at the time of an IPO.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  And Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) announced in March that it will proceed with the development of the Moho Bilondo "Phase 1 bis" and Moho Nord projects offshore the Republic of Congo. The projects, situated roughly 50 miles southwest of Pointe-Noire in water depths ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 feet, are expected to cost about $10 million and produce a combined 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day at their productive peak, which Chevron reckons will be attained in 2017.

• [By David Smith]

  Bowing out of Egypt
  It's also noteworthy that Egypt shares a western border with Libya, which is a significant producer, but where chaos and contretemps also reign. Is it any wonder, then, that Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) announced on Tuesday that it will unload its Egyptian downstream operations, including 66 service stations and a couple of oil depots, to Total (NYSE: TOT  ) ? The French company is also buying the retail assets in the land of the Sphinx from Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B  ) . Perhaps it knows something of which the rest of us are unaware.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  This will be a ��ow-a-day��week of quarterly results with Merck & Co. (MRK) �on Monday, Pfizer Inc. (PFE) �on Tuesday, Visa Inc. (V) �on Wednesday, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) �on Thursday, and Chevron Corp. (CVX) �on Friday.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Paul Ausick]

  For the three months ending in July 2013, Samsung Electronics closed the market share gap slightly between itself and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the U.S. smartphone market. Compared with market share totals at the end of April, Apple�� share rose from 39.2% to 40.2%, while Samsung�� share rose from 22% to 24.1%.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  Management expects to get to these ambitious targets thanks to several so-called flagship Android devices that are about to ship with high-end Qualcomm processors inside. The core processor strength is also bolstered by Qualcomm's powerful position in the market for high-speed wireless radio technologies. When it comes to next-generation protocols like 802.11ac Wi-Fi and LTE Advanced radio tower networks, even Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) leans on Qualcomm's products. That's a particularly important win, because Apple holds a strong market share in exactly the kinds of highly developed and high-speed markets where Qualcomm does its best work.

• [By Dan Radovsky]

  Getting the right to offer the iPhone no longer has the power to lift a mobile carrier above the rest of the field. Despite making their pacts with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) , Nos. 3 and 4 U.S. mobile carriers Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S  ) and T-Mobile US (NYSE: TMUS  ) , respectively, are still being surprassed by the top two, AT&T (NYSE: T  ) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) .

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Ben Levisohn]

  No really. Don’t call it a comeback. U.S. stocks tried with all its might to finish the day in positive territory, but in the end it could not overcome big drops in stocks like Visa (V) and JPMorgan Chase�(JPM).

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Eric Volkman]

  Benck, who will also occupy a seat on the board, had been Emulex's COO since joining the company in 2008. He was appointed its president in 2010. Before Emulex, Benck had served in both capacities at QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC  ) . Earlier, he worked for 18 years at IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , where he helped establish the storied tech giant's blade server line.

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  Stanley Druckenmiller has labeled IBM (NYSE: IBM) as one of the ��ore high probability shorts��he has seen in years. Shares of "Big Blue" lost 1.54 percent for the day, closing at $181.29.

• [By Mani]

  International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is making the right kind of investments to position itself to win across key growth drivers including cloud, mobile, analytics and big data. All these mega-themes are expected to evolve in the next 3-5 years.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 David Sterman]

   

  4. Phillip Morris (NYSE: PM) After shares of this tobacco giant pulled back from the mid-$90s in the spring to $89 by early August, director Graham Mackay thought he spotted value, plunking down more than $1.1 million of his money to buy shares. He should have waited, as shares have since fallen below $84.

   

• [By Sean Williams]

  Russia's move could pose a threat to global cigarette producers such as Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) and British American Tobacco. Although both tobacco producers operate around the globe, a dramatic shift in curbing smoking from the world's third-largest tobacco consumer is bound to sting. In Philip Morris' case, according to Trefis, Russia accounted for approximately 6% of its total revenue last year, and the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region accounted for roughly one-quarter of sales.�

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Other large-cap stocks didn't do quite so well over the last year but could see their fortunes change in years to come. Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) , for example, gained 5% and yields 4.1%. With domestic tobacco companies challenged by tightening regulations, rising taxes, and a shrinking smoking base, many have assumed that Philip Morris is the best bet in tobacco. But in the third quarter, it posted the weakest results, with volume taking a sizable drop and a strong dollar reducing its earnings. Bulls like its innovation and share buybacks.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Phillip Morris (PM) gained 2.8% to $86.56 after boosting its dividend by 10.6%.

  Restoration Hardware (RH) dropped 12% to $68.04 despite what many considered to be a solid earnings�report. Not Barron’s.