Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014

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.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks 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 Matt Thalman]

  Another top stock today was Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , which saw its shares rise 1.09%. One likely catalyst for the rise was the recent Morgan Stanley report that claimed Chevron would outperform its fellow Dow component and competitor ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) by 55% over the next few years. Morgan Stanley believes Chevron could experience higher production growth and realize better returns in the coming years. The firm also raised Chevron's price target to $135 per share, while reducing Exxon's to $85 per share. �

• [By Claudia Assis]

  Shares of Chevron Corp. (CVX) �were also among the worst hit on Thursday, off 1.9%. The two other major oil and gas companies fared better, with shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) �down 0.8% and shares of ConocoPhillips (COP) �off 1.1%.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy 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 Chris Hill]

  Shares of McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) fell on Friday after the company reported that global sales dropped in the first quarter. After hitting an all-time high earlier in April, is the stock poised for a rebound, or more of a pullback? In this segment, James Early shares his hope for humanity, while analyzing the restaurant giant.

• [By joe@4percentportfolio.com]

  McDonald's Corp. (MCD) is the largest fast-food restaurant company in the world, with nearly 34,500 restaurants in 119 countries. McDonald's success was built on an idea of consistency. Consistency in food preparation, quality, and value. This consistency has been the model for other restaurant franchises for many years now. It has also led to a consistency of reliable and increasing dividend payments for the company's shareholders.

Top Gold Stocks To Buy 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 Jon C. Ogg]

  Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target is now $68 (versus a $59.93 close) at Morgan Stanley.

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Memberships and Peers: KMB is a member of the S&P 500, a Dividend Aristocrat, a member of the Broad Dividend Achievers��Index and a Dividend Champion. The company's peer group includes: The company's peer group includes: Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) with a 3.1% yield, Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) with a 2.3% yield, and Clorox Corporation (CLX) with a 3.4% yield.

• [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.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy 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 Selena Maranjian]

  Visa (NYSE: V  ) saw its global brand value surge 46%, to $56 billion. The company is extremely global, operating in more than 200 nations, and it's poised to profit as more and more people and businesses shift from cash transactions to electronic ones. Its presence in emerging markets is also a good thing to see among stock picks, as such economies are growing rapidly -- and for Visa, that means more people beginning to use plastic for purchases. Meanwhile, our recovering economy is leading to an uptick in credit payments. The fast-growing company's forward P/E is 21, well below its five-year average of 41. Visa is far bigger than its rivals, although�MasterCard�is doing particularly well globally.

• [By Alex Planes]

  What's in your wallet? The tag line might not be Visa's (NYSE: V  ) , but the answer almost certainly is. At the end of 2011, there were 261 million Visa credit cards and 392 million Visa debit cards circulating in just the United States. People around the world are more likely to have a Visa card than they are to have a cell phone, and are far more likely to have a Visa card than they are to hold any competing card:

• [By Chris Hill]

  Shares of Visa (NYSE: V  ) rose to an all-time high this week after the company reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings. Earlier in the week, Mastercard (NYSE: MA  ) reported a 12% increase in first-quarter profits, but shares fell on lower-than-expected revenues. In this installment of Motley Fool Money, our analysts discuss Visa, MasterCard, and the future of electronic payments.

Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy 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 Regarded Solutions]

  The Team Alpha portfolio consists of Ford (F) Chevron (CVX) Apple (AAPL), McDonald's (MCD), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AT&T (T), General Electric (GE), BlackRock Kelso Capital (BKCC), KKR Financial (KFN), Procter & Gamble (PG), CSX Corp. (CSX), Realty Income (O), Coca-Cola (KO), Annaly Capital (NLY), Cisco (CSCO), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Newmont Mining (NEM), and Wells Fargo (WFC), and Intel (INTC).

• [By Anders Bylund]

  What's missing?
  American readers might wonder whatever happened to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) . The consumer electronics leader embodies the very concept of brand presence on U.S. shores, after all. A global survey like the Havas report slants a bit differently.

• [By Eric Bleeker, CFA, Jason Moser, and Chris Hill]

  Reports from The Wall Street Journal suggest that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) is working on an Android-powered gaming console, aimed at competing with a future home entertainment device that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) has in the works. Is this unusual move necessary for Google? In this segment, Eric discusses why Google might be better advised to let Apple define its own product in the space and adopt what works to release at a lower price point afterwards, a strategy that was very effective when Google moved into smartphones.

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  Mr. Ullman�has been trying to revive Penney after a disastrous year and a half under former Apple(AAPL) executive Ron Johnson. Mr. Johnson cut back discounts and did away with popular house brands without first testing how those moves would be received. The strategy drove away customers and plunged Penney into the red.