Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015

You can be sure that the next few weeks will see plenty of activity on Wall Street, as earnings season gets into full swing. While markets eased higher today partially due to Citigroup's�beat, the main reason the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) edged higher Monday was due to the performance of just a few blue chip mainstays. Although 60% of its components actually fell today, the Dow managed to add about 20 points, or 0.1%, to end at 15,484.

The Dow is a price-weighted index, the top nine stocks with the highest share price (not largest market capitalization) account for about 50% of the benchmark's movements on any given day. Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) happens to be the fourth heaviest-weighted blue chip, so its 3.7% jump today helped the average big time. Shareholders breathed a little easier after early investigations indicated that Friday's fire on a Boeing 787 was unrelated to the plane's battery. The company grounded its 787 Dreamliners for a while earlier this year after a January fire proved to originate in the battery.�

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: 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 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.

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: 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 Matt Thalman]

  After losing 1.92%, Visa (NYSE: V  ) became the Dow's third worst stock to own last week. Once again, the move comes after the company reported earnings. While on the surface Visa's results were impressive -- revenue up 8%; earnings up 20%, increased dividend; announcement of a bigger share buyback -- the stock fell on Wednesday after the report came out. One likely cause is that investors were looking for slightly more from the company. For one thing, client incentives rose 20% during the quarter, which put a damper on revenue growth and made the earnings increase look less impressive. High expectations can mean price loses from time to time in the short run, but that shouldn't drive investors away from strong long-term companies, such as Visa. �

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Stocks rebounded from yesterday’s rout today as 3M (MMM), Visa (V), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), Allergan (AGN) and Mosaic (MOS) helped lead the major indexes higher.

• [By David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer]

  Stocks jumped during the early hours of trading, but credit card network monster Visa (NYSE: V  ) was lagging behind.

  In this video, Motley Fool financial analysts David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer discuss the business of Visa and tell investors if they believe the stock is fairly valued or overvalued.

Best Casino Stocks 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 Dan Caplinger]

  Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) will release its quarterly report on Friday, and investors have watched the stock hit new all-time record highs in November before falling back in the past two months. Despite the optimism, Procter & Gamble earnings face pressure from international giant Unilever (NYSE: UL  ) as well as domestic rivals Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB  ) . The question facing investors is whether P&G can sustain its longtime competitive advantages against its rivals and bolster its growth.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Investors have always been interested in stocks that pay dividends, but lately, low interest rates on bonds and other fixed-income investments have made solid dividend payers even more valuable. Among the most promising dividend stocks in the market is Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , and one big reason is that it is one of the few exclusive companies to make the list of Dividend Aristocrats. In order to become a member of this elite group, a company must have raised its dividend payouts to shareholders every single year for at least a quarter-century. Only a few dozen stocks manage to make the cut, and those that do tend to stay there for a long time.

• [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.

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: 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 WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  McDonald�� is a well-recognized company that fulfills cravings and demand for quick and delicious food choices that many consumers across the globe enjoy. The stock has been steadily chugging higher but is now pulling-back a bit from all-time high prices. Over most of the last four quarters, earnings and revenue figures have been on the rise, however, investors have grown to expect a little more from the company. Relative to its peers and sector, McDonald’s has been an average performer, year-to-date. Look for McDonald’s to stabilize and OUTPERFORM.

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 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 Rick Munarriz]

  As Samsung gets cooler -- and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) sheds some of its swagger -- Best Buy has positioned itself as a beneficiary.

  BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba made the argument in January, raising his rating and price target on Best Buy on the theory that folks will flock back to the superstore chain now that there's less reason to hit up a dedicated Apple store.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) recently announced the release of Windows 8.1 in a test version -- Mr. Softy's attempt to answer the myriad complaints it received about Windows 8. While the new release fixed some of the biggest problems, there are at least two issues that remain problems with the release, and one issue that continues to plague the company. As Microsoft is competing with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) in the mobile and app worlds in ever-changing ways, the company's ability to be nimble is critical.

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  That didn't take long. Just months after finally getting the iPhone in its lineup, Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) device is already surging at T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS  ) .

• [By Rex Moore]

  That was one of the questions addressed recently at CE Week in New York City. According to Mashable, which hosted a panel on "The Battle Over Smartphone Screen Size," it's impossible to buy a top Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) Android phone these days with a screen smaller than 4.7 inches. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is still lagging in this area -- its iPhone 5 finally stepped up to a 4-inch display -- but there's speculation it will have to go larger as well.

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: 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 Ben Levisohn]

  As with just about any Buffett purchases, shares of ExxonMobil have gotten a pop. They’ve gained 1.9% to $94.96, well above the S&P 500′s 0.3% gain. Exxon has also outpaced ConocoPhillips (COP), which has dropped 0.8% to $73.06 and Chevron (CVX), which has risen 0.4% to $119.99. BP (BP) is up 1.2% to $47.15.

Top 10 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2015: 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 Rich Smith]

  Xerox stock is cheap
  When you stack up Xerox stock against two of its rivals in the international "business process outsourcing" industry -- Accenture (NYSE: ACN  ) and IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) -- it's clear that Xerox is one of the cheapest options out there. Its 9.7 price-to-earnings ratio falls 32% below the P/E of IBM. It sells for a whopping 45% discount to the price of a share of Accenture.

• [By Benjamin Pimentel]

  IBM Corp (IBM) �was down 0.5%, while Cisco Systems (CSCO) �was off 0.3% and Intel Corp. (INTC) �gave up 0.2%.

• [By Gregory Ness]

  Most of the biggest technology payoffs have been generated by companies that drove transformations in business operations. From the mainframe era with IBM (IBM) through the PC era with Microsoft (MSFT) and the networking era with Cisco (CSCO), disruptive technologies that set new standards for business productivity established built-to-last companies with massive market capitalizations.