Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch For 2014

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) --�Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

>>5 Blue Chips Ready to Hike Their Dividends Again

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

Top Income Companies To Watch For 2015: 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 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.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, it's starting to appear that Clorox has weathered a tough part of its business cycle. Throughout the industry, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , and Clorox all had to deal with rising costs for the inputs they needed to make their respective products. The companies responded by implementing price-cutting measures and passing on part of their higher costs to their customers. For its part, Clorox was able to expand its gross margins by a full percentage point, with a worse-than-normal flu season contributing to sales. Now that input-cost inflation is easing, P&G and Clorox expect to see better profitability, with growth starting to approach the faster rates that Colgate has enjoyed.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch 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 Paul Ausick]

  More than offsetting the drop in Disney stock, Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) saw its share price rise 0.71% today and the stock�� high per share price carries a lot of weight on the DJIA. The stock will close at around $225.46 in a 52-week range of $155.68 to $235.50. Volume was almost 50% below the daily average of around nearly 3.4 million shares traded.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch 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 Paul Ausick]

  Another Dow stock that weighed on the index today was McDonald�� Corp. (NYSE: MCD) which posted a loss of 1.2% to close at $94.85. The fast food giant posted lower U.S. same-store sales in January. The company posted a same-store sales gain on better sales in Europe and the rest of the world. Trading volume was roughly 10% above the daily average of around 5.5 million shares traded.

• [By Alyce Lomax]

  These figures are particularly impressive, given difficulties in the industry. Take former parent McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) , which reported results that analysts and investors found disappointing yesterday. The fast-food giant's comps increased an anemic 1%, and management disclosed "weak sales trends" with the warning that the rest of the year could remain difficult for its business.

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  Workers Try a New Tactic in Minimum-Wage Fight: “Stymied by Congress on their minimum-wage push, low-wage workers and even Obama administration officials are pleading for U.S. companies from McDonald's(MCD) to Wal-Mart(WMT) to raise wages voluntarily.”

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch 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 John Maxfield]

  In terms of individual stocks, IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) is the worst-performing component on the Dow this afternoon, down by 1.6% at the time of writing. The decline was not coincidentally preceded by Goldman Sachs' downgrade of the technology company's stock. The rationale paralleled a similar downgrade of�Intel yesterday. According to the research note explaining the decision, it was motivated by a forecast decrease in demand from emerging markets, where IBM gets roughly $17 billion in revenue.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch 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 Matt DiLallo]

  The Gulf aflame, again
  Earlier in the year, oil did catch fire in the Gulf after a Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) -owned pipeline caught fire after being hit by a tugboat pushing an oil barge. Cleanup crews were quick to respond in deploying thousands of feet of containment booms and skimmers. However, the incident left a mile-long oil sheen in the Gulf, which isn't something any of us wanted to see in the Gulf again. Luckily, the incident didn't cause much harm or damage, though it did serve as a reminder of the risks we face in securing our energy future.

• [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 Jonathan Yates]

  That has pushed the price of major oil companies such as ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) lower in response. There are three main reasons why investors should look upon these falling prices as an opportunity to buy oil company stocks at a discount for the long-term.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  LNG export terminals are off to the races! �There is a gold rush like fervor to LNG facilities because each company wants to shore up market share before demand is fulfilled around the globe.�Chevron's (NYSE: CVX  ) Angola LNG is one of the first ones to get there. Chevron just announced that it had shipped its first LNG cargo from the facility to Brazil last week. The addition of LNG provides producers something they haven't had in the domestic market there, demand for natural gas.�

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch 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 Fede Zaldua]

  Imperial trades cheaply and pays a great, sustainable and for-ever-growing 4.5% cash dividend yield. The company's 2014 10.4 times P/E multiple represents a 40% discount to what most European consumer staples sell for. Besides, the owner of brands such as Davidoff and Gauloises, trades at a much more conservative level than its direct tobacco peers. Philip Morris International (PM) and British American Tobacco (BTI) sell for 2014 15 and 14.2 times earnings, respectively.

• [By GuruFocus]

  Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) Reached the 52-Week Low of $80.78

  The prices of Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) shares have declined to close to the 52-week low of $80.78, which is 16.5% off the 52-week high of $96.73. Philip Morris International Inc. is owned by 33 Gurus we are tracking. Among them, 17 have added to their positions during the past quarter. Seven reduced their positions. Philip Morris International Inc. is a Virginia holding company first incorporated in 1987. Philip Morris International Inc. has a market cap of $129.42 billion; its shares were traded at around $80.78 with a P/E ratio of 15.20 and P/S ratio of 1.70. The dividend yield of Philip Morris International Inc. stocks is 4.40%. Philip Morris International Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 14.50% over the past five years.

• [By Alexandra Scaggs]

  Then the bank appeared to backpedal a bit in its note yesterday, cutting back on its recommended holdings in Ultimate Software Group(ULTI) and Mastercard(MA) and adding to its recommended positions in Anadarko Petroleum Corp.(APC), an energy stock, and Philip Morris International Inc.(PM), a consumer-staples stock. Morgan Stanley strategist Adam Parker �and his�team found that times when value stocks outperform growth stocks by such a wide margin “are typically followed by periods where value outperforms.”

• [By Editor , Dividend Growth Investor]

  Philip Morris (PM), through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products. The company has paid and consistently increased dividends every year since being spun-off from Altria Group (MO) in 2008. The last dividend increase was in September 2013, when the Board of Directors approved a 10.60% dividend increase in the quarterly distribution to 94 cents/share.