Best Blue Chip Companies To Buy For 2014

There are few technology analysts who would excuse Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC  ) failure to both foresee and participate in the mobile computing revolution. But does this egregious oversight, capped off by the CEO's pending retirement, mean that Intel stock is a lost cause? Hardly. In my opinion, in fact, it's one of the biggest blue chip bargains today.

Take Intel's dividend yield. At 4.3%, it blows other blue chip stocks out of the water. According to The Wall Street Journal, the average yield on the S&P 500�is 2.12%. And the same figure for the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 2.43%.

INTC Dividend data by YCharts.

To sweeten the pot, Intel consistently increases its quarterly distribution. Five years ago, as you can see in the chart above, Intel stock paid out $0.14 per share each quarter. This year it's paying $0.225. That equates to a 60% increase.

Top High Dividend Stocks To Invest In 2015: 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 arti7] the plaintiffs had not been able to show that they had relied on some alleged company-misrepresentations and that they had actually suffered any harm. In 2011, the 4 plaintiffs had claimed that the company had violated the privacy policy.

  They said that the iOS environment had been designed in such a manner that it was very easy to transmit users��personal information to various 3rd parties who are in the business of collecting and analyzing this information without the consent of the users. The claim also was that they had suffered damages by shelling out too much money for their handsets and had ended up losing storage space.

  Insufficient evidence

  Judge Lucy H. Koh of the United States District Court in San Jose in California dismissed the case. She said that the plaintiffs have to be able to provide evidence that the saw any of these alleges misrepresentations. The other thing that she stated in her 25th November ruling was that they also have to be able to prove that they actually relied on these representations and that they have been harmed by them. There were no comments forthcoming from either the plaintiff�� lawyers or from Apple Inc (AAPL).

  This particular case is one part of the nationwide litigation that is being overseen by Judge Koh and consolidates 19 other related lawsuits. Apple is not the only company facing lawsuits such as this one. Many other big tech companies like Yahoo! Inc (YHOO), Google Inc (GOOG), Facebook Inc (FB) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) have also been caught in the fray regarding privacy and location data.

  The PRISM program

  All of this emerged in the wake of some news regarding a United States government program known as PRISM which allowed the NSA direct access to their user data on the corporate servers from the large technology companies. Since that point of time, Apple Inc (AAPL) and all other companies have reiterated their statements regarding customer privacy. The company says t

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  That was quick. Just two days after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) CEO Tim Cook donated a coffee date to charity, bidding in the auction has now broken more than $500,000. Bidding began on April 24 and quickly reached $10,000 within approximately an hour. The "estimated value" of the sit-down was initially pegged at $50,000.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) stock was roughed up last week.

  The leading consumer tech giant saw its shares tumble 9% on the week, and this is before tomorrow's quarterly report. The market's bracing itself for soft results, but a 9% weekly plunge ahead of the actual financials seems more than a bit overblown.

Best 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 Eric Volkman]

  It's one of the steadiest dividend payers on the market, and it's continuing to fly level. Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) has declared a fresh quarterly common stock dividend, which is to be $0.34 per share, paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of July 23. That amount matches the firm's previous distribution; this was paid in May. Prior to that, Colgate-Palmolive handed out $0.31 per share.

• [By Douglas A. McIntyre]

  Some traditional brand powerhouses have lost ground in the Top 100 since 2009. These include BMW, FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL).

Best Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 Dan Caplinger]

  Earnings season isn't close to over, but we've already seen a huge number of stocks in the Dow Jones Industrials (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) report their first-quarter results. So far, we've seen more companies do better than expected than do worse, but given the extent to which analysts lowered the earnings bar in the run-up to the beginning of earnings season, investors aren't entirely confident about whether the overall performance of corporate America is strong enough to keep the bull market in stocks roaring for a sixth straight year. This week, Dow components Merck (NYSE: MRK  ) , ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) , and Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) will add their results to the mix, and what they say about some of the most challenging sectors of the U.S. economy right now could help determine which direction the Dow moves in the weeks and months to come.

• [By Dan Dzombak]

  The Dow and S&P 500 markets were buoyed today by signs that the Federal Reserve will keep its low interest rates going longer than expected. Oil majors got a further bump up by the jump in U.S. oil prices, though Brent crude was down 0.44%, to $104.87, but still remains high. ExxonMobil rose 1.3%, to $93.22, Chevron� (NYSE: CVX  ) rose 2.24%, to $121.11, and this year's�top-performing oil and gas stock, ConocoPhilips� (NYSE: COP  ) , rose 1.85%, to $73.91. Oil majors will continue to do well as long as oil prices remain at the high levels we have seen the past few years. Predicting oil prices, though, is a fool's game (with a lowercase "F"). In the short term, anything can happen.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  One of the most promising potential plays in the country is in the Neuquen Basin in what is called the Vaca Muerta formation, which actually means "Dead Cow" in Spanish. One of the first movers here is Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) which drilled two exploratory wells into the formation last year. The company is drilling another exploratory well this year with plans to drill three more appraisal wells. It's looking to expand its presence in the country even as it evaluates the results from those wells.�

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Anadarko have dropped 2.8% to $93.22 at 11:30 a.m. today, a bigger loss than those experienced by others in the sector.�Chevron�(CVX) has fallen 0.2% to $117.90, for instance,�Devon Energy�(DVN) has declined 0.7% to $63.98 and�ConocoPhillips (COP) has 0.8% to $72.76.

Best 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 Muhammad Bazil]

  It is no longer news that International Business Machine (IBM) released disappointing 2013 third quarter results. It is also no longer news that the stock has taken a beating since then from $186.73 per share it traded at the close of business just before the third quarter financials were released to the investing public on Wednesday, Oct. 16. The negative reactions of investors to the third quarter results were noticed during the extended hours of trading on that same day when the stock took a dip from $186.73 to $175.99 per share. That sudden dip in IBM�� stock price amounts to a loss of about 6% per share within a space of a few hours after the release of the third quarter results.

• [By GuruFocus]

  These are the top 5 holdings of Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)

  Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) - 463,458,123 shares, 21.8% of the total portfolio. Coca-Cola Co (KO) - 400,000,000 shares, 14.6% of the total portfolio. American Express Co (AXP) - 151,610,700 shares, 12.9% of the total portfolio. International Business Machines Corp (IBM) - 68,355,084 shares, 12.4% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 0.34% Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) - 58,052,412 shares, 4.2% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 17.32% New Purchase: Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)

  Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) initiated holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. His purchase prices were between $45.98 and $49.3, with an estimated average price of $47.35. The impact to his portfolio due to this purchase was 0.5%. His holdings were 11,022,743 shares as of 03/31/2014.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  DJIA stocks on the move: International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) hit a new 52-week low of $183.17 on Tuesday but managed to close up 0.2% at $184.56. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) had another gain of 1.1% to $22.52 a day after an analyst upgrade, The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) closed own by 1.2% at $74.29 even though its earnings rose some 17%, likely on profit taking.

Best 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 Efficient Alpha]

  Philip Morris International (PM) is a favorite of mine, not only for its 4% dividend but also for its protection against global inflationary pressures. The company can pass through higher commodity prices and smokers will keep coming back for more. The company has 16% of the international market and is making strong progress in China. Asia accounts for 36% of sales, followed by the EMEA region (27%), the EU (26%) and Latin America/Canada (11%). Shares have posted an annual return of 15% since its spinoff in 2008.

• [By Editor , Dividend Growth Investor]

  Philip Morris� (PM), through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products. This dividend machine has rewarded shareholders with a dividend increase since being spun-offs from Altria Group (MO) in 2008.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The name change reflected the company's wish to have consumers and investors see beyond its tobacco business, which at the time was plagued by more substantial legal battles with billions in potential liability hanging in the balance. Shareholders approved the name change in 2002. The irony, of course, is that Altria has since spun off both Kraft and its Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) global tobacco divisions, leaving Altria holding the old core Philip Morris USA division.