Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest In Right Now

Idea generation is passive.

Investment ideas are scarce and hard to come by at times. People constantly ask me about companies they work for (Bell) or businesses they purchase a lot of product from (P&G or Coca-Cola), and what I think about the prospects/valuation. When it is not the blue chips in the limelight it certainly is the Netflix��,Tesla's, 3-D printing, and other companies I would classify as speculative. It is not that I am a Grinch, but I do not like giving out investment ideas. Rather, I attempt to give lessons. As Maimonides said, ��ive a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.��/p>

So how do you find ideas? Do you mindlessly follow others? Did someone else give you a recommendation to buy or sell? Did you see it on CNBC or another business television network? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may want to revamp the idea generation step of your investment process.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest In Right Now: 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 MLP Trader]

  Of course, this is just a thought experiment for how the company could continue and reward shareholders in its current form. I think a buyout is a much more likely outcome. The company is an extremely tempting target for a Crescent Point (CSCTF.PK), Chevron (CVX), or Exxon (XOM). With an Enterprise Value of about $3.5 billion, it's a bite size for larger integrated oil companies. According to a 3rd party estimate, the present value of Lighstream's booked reserves alone is significantly higher than that. And Lightstream has a huge inventory of unbooked locations and a million acres of completely undeveloped land.

• [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.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Talisman's and Marathon's decision to retrench from their Polish operations comes not too long after ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) announced last year that it would stop exploring for natural gas in Poland after initial tests failed to yield commercial quantities of gas. Of the remaining energy majors, only Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP  ) and Eni still have operations in Poland.

• [By Marc Courtenay]

  It would sure look responsible for a big integrated energy company like XOM or Chevron (CVX) to acquire the leading provider of environmental, energy and industrial services in North America. The company serves a diverse customer base, including a majority of the Fortune 500 companies, thousands of smaller private entities and numerous federal, state, provincial and local governmental agencies.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest In Right Now: 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 Daniela Pylypczak]

  Visa (V) released its fourth quarter earnings results on Wednesday after the closing bell, posting earnings that fell in line with expectations.

  V’s Q3 Performance in Brief
  - Revenue climbed 9% to $3 billion in Q4, slightly below analysts’ estimates of $3.02 billion.
  - Net income came in at $1.2 billion for the quarter, or $1.85 per share, a 15% �increase from a year prior. Analysts had expected EPS to come in at $1.85.
  - Net income for the full year 2013 was reported at $5.0 billion, an 18% increase from a year prior.

  Visa’s 2014 Financial Outlook
  - Visa expects annual net revenue growth in 2014 to come in at the low double-digits on a constant dollar basis, with an expectation of two percentage points of negative foreign currency impact.
  - Annual operating margins are expected to come in around the low 60s.
  - Annual diluted class A common stock EPS growth is expected to be in the mid to high teens.
  - Annual free cash flow is expected to come in at $5 billion in 2014.

  Visa Announces Share Buyback
  Visa’s Board of Directors also approved a new $5.0 billion class A common stock share repurchase program. The shares may be repurchased from time to time as market conditions warrant,�and authorization for the program is subject to further change at the discretion of the Board.

  CEO Commentary
  CEO Charlie Scharf commented, “Visa delivered strong financial performance during the fourth quarter and full year across our global businesses, a reflection of solid revenue and transaction growth. We continued investing in high growth regions of the world, in products and technology to drive our performance, while maintaining disciplined expense control. We also have been consistent and decisive in returning excess cash to shareholders and maintain this commitment. Both the increase in our quarterly dividend payment by 21% to $0.40 per share and our new $5 billion share repurchase auth

Top Safest 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 Evan Niu, CFA]

  It wasn't all bad for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) when management was grilled by lawmakers last week over its tax strategies. Several members of the Senate subcommittee bashed the corporate income tax code instead of Apple, noting that Apple was legally playing by the rules, albeit extremely effectively. Besides, plenty of other tech giants use the same strategy.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest In Right Now: 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 Dan Carroll]

  Now fully into earnings season, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) is having a hard time getting things going today. The index has hung flat for most of the day as blue-chip stocks have remained mixed between risers and losers. McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) sure hasn't helped after the company's earnings report sent the fast-food giant's shares tumbling. Let's catch up on all the action around the Dow you need to know.

• [By Matt Thalman]

  On the earnings side, although McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) just slightly missed on revenue and earnings per share for the second quarter, weak same-store sales growth and a warning from management hold a number of challenges for the company.

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  Though mostly in line with expectations, McDonald�� (MCD) just delivered disappointing third-quarter earnings that showed stagnant revenue yet again. A meager 2.4% increase in the top line this quarter followed a disappointing 0.9% increase last quarter.

Hot Blue Chip Companies 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 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 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.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Invest 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 Whitney Kisling]

  Earnings at computer companies will fall 5.5 percent in the three months through June as consumers and government agencies cut spending, according to more than 2,000 analyst estimates tracked by Bloomberg. The group, led by Apple Inc. (AAPL) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), trades at 13 times projected profit, the lowest level compared with the Standard & Poor�� 500 since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 2006.

• [By John Divine]

  While ending as the third-biggest blue chip gainer Monday, International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM  ) is far and away the stock with the most ability to move the Dow. Singlehandedly responsible for nearly 10% of the index's movements, IBM's 1% advance today helped put the Dow firmly in the green. With the IT bigshot's second-quarter report set to come out Wednesday, Big Blue may continue to dictate the mood of the markets this week; analysts expect profits to grow between 5% and 6%.