Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks For 2014

LONDON -- One of Warren Buffett's famous investing sayings is "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful" -- or, in other words, sell when others are buying and buy when they're selling.

But we might expect Foolish investors to know that, and looking at what Fools have been buying recently might well provide us with some ideas for good investments.

So, in this series of articles, we're going to look at what customers of The Motley Fool ShareDealing Service have been buying in the past week or so and what might have made them decide to do so.

A stereotypical blue chip
Unilever� (LSE: ULVR  ) (NYSE: UL  ) is a stereotypical blue-chip company -- it has an international reputation for quality and reliability, and has proved its ability to operate profitably, despite the vicissitudes of the stock market, to deliver rewards to its shareholders over the long term.

Unilever sells brands that everyone knows and that command consumer confidence and loyalty. It counts Marmite, PG Tips, Persil, Walls, Cif, Flora, Knorr, and Colman's in its stable of more than 400 brand names worldwide. There's even Pot Noodle, a brand many people claim to hate, although the fact that it holds a 49% value share of the "instant hot snack" market suggests otherwise.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks 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 Dan Caplinger]

  Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) will release its quarterly report on Tuesday, and investors have been increasingly nervous about the tech giant's ability to keep its long-term restructuring efforts moving forward. With rival IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) having faced tough conditions in the IT market and with Accenture (NYSE: ACN  ) squarely aimed at the same consulting customers that HP hopes to poach in its reorganization efforts, Hewlett-Packard faces pressure to start producing solid results from its strategic moves sooner rather than later.

• [By Dan Radovsky]

  But GE was not the first industrial giant to become interested in the Industrial Internet. IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) is the Big Kahuna of Big Data. Its five-year old Smarter Planet division has led the way.

• [By Jonathan Fishman]

  I have been following XRTX for the last couple of years as I cover the HDD industry very closely. XRTX sells HDD capital equipment, and following them helped me get a better feel for the CAPEX environment for the HDD duopoly. I witnessed XRTX's revenues plunge from about $455M a quarter back in 2010, to under $200M a quarter in Q1-13, a decrease of approximately 65% in revenues and more than 85% in net profits. This was mainly because NetApp (NTAP), once responsible for more than 45% of XRTX's Enterprise Data Storage Solution business, or $150M a quarter, started to source their disk arrays in-house. This trend was true with Dell (DELL) as well. I've summed up, NetApp's, Dell's and IBM's (IBM) contributions to XRTX's revenues for the past 8 quarters in the Enterprise Data Storage Solution segment.

• [By Cheryl Kaften]

  To remain relevant and competitive, current smart grid vendors -- among them ABB (NYSE: ABB  ) , General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) �, IBM� (NYSE: IBM  ) , �and�Siemens� (NYSE: SI  ) --�may have to make market adjustments, including partnerships, acquisitions, and advances of their own.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks 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 Jeremy Bowman]

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) closed out essentially where it started today as McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) earnings this morning cooled off what was an otherwise bullish day for Wall Street. While the Dow closed up just 2 points, or 0.01%, the S&P 500 gained 0.2%, ending at a record high for the third session in a row as a solid start to earnings season has lifted the market. About 64% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have beaten earnings estimates. Only one economic report was released today, which showed June existing home sales coming at 5.08 million, slightly below May's mark of 5.14 million and below expectations at 5.28 million. Investors continue to be concerned that the housing recovery could cool off as mortgage rates have come up.

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Another company that has been battling the obesity issue and is falling today is McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) . Shares are down 1.04% after the company announced that key sales figures fell again in April. The company is blaming fears of the avian flu as reason for the weak performance in China. Sales fell 0.6% globally in April, even though the U.S. market increased by 0.7%. But the largest decline came from Europe, were sales dropped 2.4% during the month.�

Top Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: 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 Dividend Growth Investor]

  In a previous article, I outlined that it is getting more difficult to find quality dividend paying stocks to buy. Most of the usual suspects like Kimberly-Clark (KMB) or Colgate-Palmolive (CL) are very overvalued today, which prevents me from adding to my positions there. Other companies like Chevron (CVX) are attractively valued today, but unfortunately my portfolio is overweight in them. Currently I find the oil sector to be cheap and have some of the lowest P/E ratios in the market. However, I would hate to be concentrated in one sector which is exposed to the fluctuating prices in its commodity products.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  One concern, though, is how the company handled news of Venezuela's currency devaluation. Clorox (NYSE: CLX  ) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) also felt the pinch, with Clorox taking about a $0.05 to $0.10 per-share earnings hit and Colgate losing about $0.50 per share. But they also addressed the potential devaluation more proactively than P&G did. Clorox actually�anticipated�the devaluation in its February earnings report, projecting the potential hit if a devaluation took place. Colgate didn't provide specific guidance in advance but clearly saw it as an issue, delivering on a promise to give prompt guidance revisions after the devaluation occurred.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks 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 Doug Ehrman]

  Though making a meaningful smartphone comparison used to involve pitting Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) in a duopoly, the other players in the market have become increasingly important to understanding the landscape. Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) Windows Phones have gained traction, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) refuses to go away, and Samsung has carved out its own niche unlike any other. Any meaningful smartphone comparison now includes multiple devices across multiple operating systems, not to mention a look at the markets in which they compete.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Wearable computing is clearly going to be a big market. Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) push for high-tech glasses is the real deal. This isn't science fiction anymore. Samsung last month announced that it's exploring a smart watch. Then we have Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) , which has long been rumored to be working on a smart watch.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  The company famously lost the main camera spot in Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) iPhones back in 2011, replaced by BSI chips from Sony (NYSE: SNE  ) . OmniVision does sell chips to Apple today, but these are normally the skimpier and less profitable front-facing cameras. Then again, Apple's share of the global mobility space isn't as beefy as it once was, so it's easier to make up for a lost Apple socket with a couple of Android-based wins nowadays.

Top 5 Blue Chip 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 Arjun Sreekumar]

  What's next for the global LNG trade?
  Going forward, however, the rare drop last year is likely to be an anomaly, with the number of countries participating in the global LNG trade set to grow sharply. This year, BG Group forecasts that the global LNG trade will grow by a modest 5.4 million tons, bolstered by exports from Angola -- where Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) recently shipped its first cargo from the Angola LNG plant -- and new terminals in Australia, as well as an increase in imports from Singapore and Malaysia, and an offshore facility in Israel.

• [By Rich Smith]

  On Tuesday, the Department of Defense awarded some $2.3 billion worth of contracts for "aviation turbine fuel." Most of the major oil and refining companies came away with contracts, including:

  Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A  ) subsidiary Equilon Enterprises, which claimed the largest award at an estimated $474.1 million in maximum value. Valero (NYSE: VLO  ) , winner of a nearly as large contract valued at up to $456.4 million. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) , winner of a $405.1 million contract. Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , which won $391.4 million. Western Refining (NYSE: WNR  ) , awarded a $268.7 million supply contract.

  In addition, four other, smaller companies also won contracts. All nine contracts state June 30, 2014, as the deadline for delivery.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Tale of the tape
  Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) has only been a current Dow component since 2008, but it first joined way back in 1930, when it was still Standard Oil of California. Chevron's dubious 1999 removal hindered the index's growth for years, but investors who held on enjoyed gains of nearly 150% before the oil supermajor was reinstated. Chevron has ranked as America's third largest company on the Fortune 500 for several years running, a position befitting one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world.