Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own For 2015

Our top pick for 2014 was founded in 1910, and has been at the forefront of the constantly changing area of high technology ever since, says Russ Kaplan, editor of the Heartland Advisor.

Our pick is the well-known blue chip company International Business Machines (IBM). Technology has changed drastically since 1910, and IBM has always risen to a challenge, which, over the years, has left many high tech companies in the dust.

I've been following IBM since the early 1980s, and it's gone through periods when Wall Street analysts have been skeptical of its future. Today is one of those times, providing you with an excellent buying opportunity.

The skepticism comes from the supposed inability to react to such developments as the progression from typewriters to computers, and from mainframes to personal computers.

After that, IBM got out of the personal computer business, which had become a commodity with low prices, to a service company. It sold its computer manufacturing business to Lenovo (LNVGF).

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Evan Niu, CFA]

  Over the past two quarters following the release of the iPhone 5, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) has been caught off guard by surprisingly strong demand for the iPhone 4. The company doesn't disclose specific product mix data, but management has acknowledged that the iPhone 4 has been in high demand.

• [By Douglas A. McIntyre]

  Ralph de la Vega, the CEO of AT&T Mobility, the wireless arm of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is considered an expert in one business that Microsoft eagerly wants to control. Microsoft tried to buy into the mobile operating systems and apps business through its venture with Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). The deal has floundered as the handset company has lost share to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)�and Samsung.

• [By Valuentum]

  Verizon added 1.1 million net retail wireless connections and 927,000 net retail postpaid connections in the period, leading to quarter-end marks of 101.2 million total retail connections and 95.2 million total retail postpaid connections. Wireless service revenue advanced 8.4%, and the company's wireless operating and EBITDA margins were wonderful, coming in at 22.8% and 51.1% in the period, respectively. The firm noted that Apple's (AAPL) iPhone accounted for 51% of activations in the period (up from 43% in the second quarter and 46% in the year-ago period), suggesting the smartphone maker is picking up share in the US market. The firm's wireline business saw a 1% drop in total revenue, though segment EBITDA did nudge higher from the same quarter last year. All-in, Verizon's consolidated revenue advanced 4.4%, driving adjusted earnings per share to $0.77, roughly a 20% increase compared with adjusted earnings per share of $0.64 in the prior-year period.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 M. Joy, Hayes]

  Shareholders, keep out
  A few years ago, when the SEC considered introducing a new regulation requiring public companies to include some shareholder-nominated candidates for the board of directors on their proxy statements, Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) objected.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Activity in offshore oil drilling has been red hot lately. The U.S. government timed its most recent Gulf of Mexico auction almost perfectly, as it came right on the heels of Anadarko Petroleum's and Chevron's (NYSE: CVX  ) announcements that the two companies had hit major paydirt at a couple of its rigs. The U.S. isn't the only country finding sucess offshore, either. This past week, Brazil completed its first oil and gas lease auction in five years, and apparently the long wait had exploration and production companies drooling. The country pulled in its largest auction revenue ever, about 2.88 billion Brazilian reais ($1.4 billion).

• [By Matt Thalman]

  ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) reports on Thursday, while fellow energy stock Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) pulls in on Friday. For Exxon, the Street wants to see EPS of $1.90 on revenue of $105.54 billion. A year ago, Exxon posted EPS of $1.80 and sales of $127.36 billion. Earnings are thus set to rise, and that's what really matters. The EPS estimate of $1.90 is an average of 21 analysts' opinions, with the high end at $2.05 per share and the low end coming in at $1.63. The expected 17.1% year-over-year revenue drop for Q2 isn't a great sign, and it could pose a big problem if Exxon misses expectations. �

• [By Susan J. Aluise]

  Also, T is teaming up with IBM (IBM) on the ��nternet of Things��— combining their security, cloud capabilities and analytics platforms to jump-start Smart City initiatives. These new market opportunities have the potential to actually boost the performance of T stock over the next couple of years, too.

  Chevron (CVX)

  Chevron (CVX) is down 9% since Dec. 27. CVX stock has a current dividend yield of 3.5% and is trading at a fairly cheap 10 times forward earnings. CVX stock has gained ground this week despite an explosion at a fracking well in Pennsylvania on Tuesday — and the questionable PR tactic of offering free pizza to residents living near the site.

Best Canadian Stocks To Own 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 Ben Levisohn]

  The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% to 1,781.56 as Xerox (XRX) and E*Trade Financial (ETFC) fell. The�Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed for once: Blue chips fell 0.3% to 15,837.88 as Caterpillar’s (CAT) big gain helped mitigate the big drops in Visa (V) and Goldman Sachs (GS). Still, the Dow fell for a fifth consecutive day, its longest slide since Dec. 5, 2013.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Sean Williams]

  Russia's move could pose a threat to global cigarette producers such as Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) and British American Tobacco. Although both tobacco producers operate around the globe, a dramatic shift in curbing smoking from the world's third-largest tobacco consumer is bound to sting. In Philip Morris' case, according to Trefis, Russia accounted for approximately 6% of its total revenue last year, and the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region accounted for roughly one-quarter of sales.�

• [By Efficient Alpha]

  Philip Morris International (PM) is a favorite of mine, not only for its 4% dividend but also for its protection against global inflationary pressures. The company can pass through higher commodity prices and smokers will keep coming back for more. The company has 16% of the international market and is making strong progress in China. Asia accounts for 36% of sales, followed by the EMEA region (27%), the EU (26%) and Latin America/Canada (11%). Shares have posted an annual return of 15% since its spinoff in 2008.

• [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 abirk]

  Philip Morris International (PM) is reaching new heights in 2013. With its products being sold in 180 countries it is the proud owner of about 15 cigarette brands- Marlboro, Merit, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M, and Chesterfield being some of them. FY2013 looks bright for this tobacco giant. Reasons Why 2013 Is Looking Bright

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 E.S. Browning]

  Investors face two problems: The first is earnings. Of the 52 companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported fourth-quarter results, 52% beat expectations according to S&P Capital IQ, below the average 67% of the past four quarters. Moreover, revenue gains have been weak. Earnings season has just begun and money managers will be watching coming reports closely, including from International Business Machines Corp.(IBM), Verizon Communications Inc.(VZ) and McDonald�� Corp. this week.

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Furthermore, the Dow's most heavily weighted stock, IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , lost 1.11% this week. Combine that with all the Dow's losers this past week (the others were Alcoa, Intel, and Coca-Cola), and you get an index weighting of 26.17%. But with no weighting, seven stocks out of 30 would account for just 23.33% of the index.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), with its driverless cars, is also committed to being the leader in new technology for automakers. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) are other contenders for platform dominance.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The Dow’s comeback–if erasing a 0.4% drop can be called a comeback–was especially impressive considering that the four highest-priced stocks, and the ones with the biggest weights in the index, finished in the red. Visa (V) fell 0.6% to $220.55–perhaps a side-effect of this American Express (AXP) upgrade?–while Goldman Sachs (GS) fell 0.6% to $161 after naming a third co-head to its securities division, and 3M (MMM) declined 0.5% at $129.70. International Business Machines (IBM) dipped 0.1% to $177.14.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]

  Chipotle (NYSE: CMG  ) has been talking about a potential price hike for a while, but it hasn't touched menu prices in over a year. Meanwhile, competitors like Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) �have boosted prices, giving a lift to both sales and profits. In the video below, Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos discusses what's kept Chipotle from doing the same, and what investors can expect from the company in the quarters ahead.

• [By Steve Heller]

  The workaround
  For whale-sized retailers, PayPal has developed a little workaround known as self-checkout. Last year, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) ran a 30-store trial in France to test PayPal's self-checkout operation, which ultimately aims to reduce the number of cashiers needed to function. Customers place and pay for their orders on a smartphone and then wait in a queue to pick up their food.

• [By Katie Spence]

  As you can see, leisure and hospitality make up 34%. Most of those jobs are in restaurants and other food services -- like McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) , Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG  ) , Yum Brands' (NYSE: YUM  ) Taco Bell, and Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) . Consequently, if the Fair Minimum Wage Act is passed, it'll have the biggest impact on fast-food and restaurant companies.

• [By Andrew Marder]

  Starbucks has been pushing for more food income for the past year, and this is just one small step on its long road. The long-term plan for Starbucks is to gain a bigger foothold in the lucrative U.S. food market and help it compete with other cafes like Panera (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) . Based on those goals, things are looking good for the coffee retailer.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Ong Kang Wei]

  Another example of such a product is Colgate-Palmolive (CL)'s Colgate toothpaste. I do not think I have to elaborate much here. Toothpaste is needed in our everyday life, and we will definitely have to buy more toothpaste after we have finished using a packet of it, ensuring that Colgate gets more and more sales over the years.