Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Own For 2014

Geopolitical tremors out of Russia and the Ukraine have shaken up the markets today, so the major indices are off about 1%. If the recent bumpiness has you nervous, you can keep this in mind: I do expect the U.S. economy to heat up once we’ve put this severe winter weather behind us. So while we may see some near-term bumpiness in the market, I’m optimistic that we’ll weather those dips just fine and have a good first half of 2014 and beyond.

Even though the stock market might be oscillating day to day, volatility is now moderating and I suspect that we can use these daily oscillations to step up and buy these premium stocks.

But before you buy, let’s look at the 50 big blue chips that have been upgraded and downgraded this weekend. After taking a close look at the latest data on institutional buying pressure and each company’s fundamental health, I decided to revise my Portfolio Grader recommendations for each of the stocks listed below.

Upgrades

������� Last Week’s Holds Now Buys

Top 5 Mid Cap Companies To Own For 2015: 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 MONEYMORNING.COM]

  Bloomberg writer Matt Townsend says Apple is working on the NXP-powered "wallet" function with MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V).

• [By Associated Press]

  Prom spending is expected to rise this spring to an average $1,139. That's among families who are planning to spend some money to attend the annual affair, according to a survey of 1,025 parents of prom age teens by payment processor Visa (NYSE: V  ) and research company Gfk. Not included in the average were 12 percent who said they wouldn't spend anything on the prom. A majority of parents with teenagers surveyed were still unsure how much they'd spend.

Hot 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 Holly LaFon]

  TR: Warren said something about them in the annual report two years ago, which is he gave them credit for having the capacity for knowing what is knowable and important. He often says investing is about knowing what�� knowable and important, and he gave them praise for having that skill. More recently he�� not only given them high praise but also substantially increased amounts of money to manage. And in addition, he credits them for increasing contribution across the organization into other areas of responsibility. So I would think that even though it would not end up to his portfolio credit, that Ted would have been very involved in the acquisition of ResCap. And I think the investment of ResCap is probably better off because of his ability to handle it. And I suspect that Todd may have had some contribution to Bank of America (BAC), which is a very important investment that Berkshire made, and for IBM (IBM), which was a big investment.

Hot 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 Alex Planes]

  Mcdonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) is a 27-year veteran of the Dow and is based in Southern California. It's the world's largest publicly traded restaurateur, with more than 34,000 restaurants staffed by more than 1.8 million employees, serving 69 million people in 119 countries every single day. It is the only restaurateur to ever gain a place on the Dow, and this status is reflected by its incredible brand recognition overseas. The company's first grand openings in Russia and China were attended by thousands, and those restaurants remained among the entire company's top producers for many years afterwards.

• [By Sue Chang]

  McDonald�� (MCD) �is likely to post earnings of $1.24 a share in the first quarter. ��e rate the shares of McDonald�� Corp. neutral. This rating largely reflects our concerns about domestic same-store sales trends and unit-level operations, including menu complexity and what appears to be slowing average service times,��said Mark Kalinowski at Janney Capital Markets.

• [By Alyssa Oursler]

  When investors looks for dividends, they often opt for venerable blue-chips like Verizon (VZ), Procter & Gamble (PG) or McDonald’s (MCD). But it’s important to remember that size — or the size of the company, that is — isn’t everything.

• [By Gregory Wallace and Charles Riley]

  While many of its fast food rivals have rushed to cut ties with OSI, McDonald's (MCD) said it will continue to do business with the supplier. The American fast food chain will shift its sourcing to a Husi plant in Hebei, before fully transitioning to a new facility in Henan.

Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Chevron is an oil and gas bellwether that provides essential energy products and services to consumers and companies worldwide. The company reported earnings that were lower in 2013 than 2012. The stock has been trading sideways in recent quarters and is now trading near lows for the year. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been decreasing while revenues have been mixed, which has left investors optimistic about recent earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, Chevron has been a poor year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what Chevron does this coming quarter.

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Coming in second place, after falling slightly more than 4%, is Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) . The big decline came on Friday, after reporting a 4% revenue drop and a 32% net earnings decline compared with the same quarter last year. Management said lower production and weak global fuel costs played a large role in the results. To counteract these types of problems in the coming year, management is looking to cut some $2 billion from its expenses. A high amount of uncertainty about where fuel prices and production levels will be six months to a year from now had investors concerned about the company's future earnings. Those are the types of risk that oil and gas investors always need to watch out for. �

• [By Taylor Muckerman]

  Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) has obviously taken notice, because it now has plans to invest up to $1.5 billion with YPF to develop its Vaca Muerta field. One would be hard pressed to fault Chevron for its interest here. The industry believes that as much as 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 16 billion barrels of oil rest in this formation alone. That's more shale oil in one field than all of Venezuela is forecast to have and more shale gas than Russia's predicted bounty.�

Hot 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 Tom Taulli]

  Beyond the News Feed: Facebook plans to build more apps that provide unique solutions for users without being embedded in the core Facebook app. One example is Messenger, which has been growing at breakneck speed — it was the most downloaded app for Apple���(AAPL) iOS and Google�� Android in December. FB also is adding key assets via acquisitions, the most important of which (so far) appears to be Instagram. With it, Facebook has been able to benefit from the huge popularity of photo sharing and also has been able to better engage younger users.

• [By David Dittman]

  Answer: I like Apple Inc (NSDQ: AAPL) for growth plus income as well as NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE: NEE) and ARC Resources Ltd (TSX: ARX, OTC: AETUF).

Hot 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 Holly LaFon]

  A: The stock market is a market of individual stocks that represent fractional ownership interests in real businesses. The key to investment success is first and foremost to identify individual, highly durable businesses and then have the discipline to buy them when prices are attractive and the risk/reward trade-off is compelling. We invest in what we understand, continuing to pour over the universe of businesses within our many circles of competence that meet our management, capital allocation, business model, and valuation criteria. Some areas that we believe offer the greatest opportunity in terms of prospective returns include:

  Global market leaders such as Nike (NKE), Colgate-Palmolive (CL) and Philip Morris International (PM) that are beneficiaries of a growing global middle class and consumer culture. The global wealth effect, particularly in developing economies, is a real and very powerful force that should serve as a tailwind for these types of global brands over the long term. Well-managed financial services companies with true franchise value due to the success of their particular products or brand that have the ability and management prowess to build market share over time in a highly fragmented marketplace. Wells Fargo and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) are representative examples in this category. The depth of the recent financial crisis is well known. What is less understood is that certain market leaders used the downturn to dramatically strengthen their capital base and significantly grow their market share at the expense of weaker competitors. Certain health care-related businesses such as UnitedHealth Group and Laboratory Corporation of America that stand to benefit from growing health care spending by aging populations around the world. Workhorse technology companies such as Texas Instruments (TXN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google that are market leaders with durable competitive moats and that also offer an attractive risk/reward proposition at
• [By James Well]

  Analysts��Consensus Position on Pfizer
  
  Thirteen analysts including those at TheStreet, Thomson Reuters/Verus, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and Argus Research are optimistic about the performance of Pfizer going forward and, hence, reiterated a consensus buy recommendation at an average target price of $31.78 per share. Last Wednesday, analysts at Goldman Sachs removed Pfizer from Goldman�� conviction buy list (CL) where Pfizer has been since Aug. 9, 2011, and placed it on the buy list but raised its price target from $34 to $35 per share. Jami Rubin, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, claimed that Pfizer has gone up by 82.5% since being added to the CL as against 53.9% for the S&P 500 during the period and, therefore, there was the need to replace Pfizer with AbbVie at a price target of $60 because they claimed AbbVie has greater upside at this time.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) will release its quarterly report on Friday, and investors have watched the stock hit new all-time record highs in November before falling back in the past two months. Despite the optimism, Procter & Gamble earnings face pressure from international giant Unilever (NYSE: UL  ) as well as domestic rivals Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB  ) . The question facing investors is whether P&G can sustain its longtime competitive advantages against its rivals and bolster its growth.

• [By TaniaC]

  Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) is a consumer products company whose products are marketed in over 200 countries and territories throughout the world. It operates in two segments: Oral, Personal and Home Care and Pet Nutrition.