Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 2014

I just bought shares of a fund aimed at generating income and lowering volatility, by owning securities with wide valuations and above-average dividend; it can be considered a stock hedge fund for the retail investor, suggests Vivian Lewis, editor of Global Investing.

Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Equity Income Fund (EXG) favors active management in a declining market based on CIO Michael Wilson's strategy for closed end funds.

Morgan Stanley recently rated overweight, based on the fund's actively-managed strategy. EXG uses covered calls to boost income and lower portfolio volatility.

Writing calls is a good strategy for boosting income, but you have to focus on it. The fund, run by the same two managers since its founding in 2007, is focused.

EXG is largely invested in non-US shares (mostly continental and about 10% UK) and writes calls on broad foreign equity index options (usually slightly out of the money).

The calls are offset by its portfolio of high-yielding foreign blue chip individual company stock. The current top positions in the fund include Royal Dutch, Nestle, Roche, Vodafone, HSBC, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, BP, Unilever, Bayer, Astra Zeneca, Diageo, and ABB.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 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 Alex Planes]

  Mcdonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) is a 27-year veteran of the Dow and is based in Southern California. It's the world's largest publicly traded restaurateur, with more than 34,000 restaurants staffed by more than 1.8 million employees, serving 69 million people in 119 countries every single day. It is the only restaurateur to ever gain a place on the Dow, and this status is reflected by its incredible brand recognition overseas. The company's first grand openings in Russia and China were attended by thousands, and those restaurants remained among the entire company's top producers for many years afterwards.

• [By Douglas A. McIntyre]

  Burger Kind has few advantages over its much larger�rival McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), which has almost 13,000 locations in the United States.�Burger King has just�over 7,000. Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) is gaining with almost 6,000 stores. Burger King’s sales last year were less than $2 billion, in contrast to McDonald’s sales of $27.5 billion.

• [By Chris Hill]

  Last Friday, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) CEO Bob Thompson told CNBC that McDonald's may consider serving breakfast throughout the day. Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) and Panera (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) have racked success with their breakfast offerings. Will McDonald's be able to take a bite out of the competition with all-day breakfast offerings? In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts talk about the business of breakfast.

• [By Steve Symington]

  With beef prices on the rise, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) has officially decided to remove its Angus Third Pounder burgers from the menu by the middle of next month.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 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 Lennox Yieke]

  In light of this, payments bigwigs Visa (NYSE: V  ) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA  ) have increased their presence in the continent. Not only have Visa and MasterCard increased issuance of plastic money, but they have also made bold mobile money initiatives. Could this spur the next round of prolonged growth for the two bigwigs?

• [By Steve Heller]

  It seems that once you've grown large enough to disrupt business as usual for MasterCard (NYSE: MA  ) and Visa (NYSE: V  ) , you run the risk of getting muscled. MasterCard recently announced plans to raise prices on intermediated payment processors (read: digital wallets) that chose to withhold valuable transaction details from MasterCard. In other words, this measure takes direct aim at eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) PayPal and other digital wallets such as Google Wallet that do not share transaction details with the payment processor.

• [By Sean Williams, Travis Hoium, and Alex Planes]

  In that spirit, we three Fools have banded together to find the market's best and worst stocks, which we'll rate on�The Motley Fool's CAPS�system as outperformers or underperformers. We'll be accountable for every pick based on the sum of our knowledge and the balance of our decisions. Today, we'll be discussing Visa (NYSE: V  ) , the world's largest electronic payment processing network.

• [By Motley Fool Staff]

  Remer: Oh, huge opportunity to change. But it will take time. You asked about MasterCard. It will take time to potentially replace the ecosystems that exist and how are those leading organizations -- the MasterCards, the Visas (NYSE: V  ) , the American Express (NYSE: AXP  ) , the PayPals -- going to come down to the next generation and give them the reason why they should utilize that same payment system.

Top Clean Energy 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 Jon C. Ogg]

  We recently had a chance to interview one of the portfolio managers for the Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSEMKT: HDGE), which is an actively managed short selling exchange-traded fund. It acts like a short selling hedge fund but with instant market liquidity features that an ETF structure provides. The ETF’s major short selling position in shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was what really piqued our interest. Investors did well who decided to move out of IBM as Big Blue’s stock price has managed to fall by more than $11 per share since then. It turns out that the team here remains a short seller of IBM, and this is indirectly a bet against Warren Buffett.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Get ready for more
  There's nothing all that unusual in the pension problems facing Girl Scouts of the USA. Plenty of private companies and public-sector employers are dealing with the same issues and have had to take similar steps to shore up their pension finances. Like the GSUSA, IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) froze their pension plans several years ago, as both companies decided that reducing the unpredictability of pension benefits made the most sense for them in managing their risk. More recently, Verizon and General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) took even more dramatic steps to limit pension risk, outsourcing substantial portions of their respective pension liabilities to insurance giant Prudential (NYSE: PRU  ) . By doing so, the two employers passed off their obligations to an industry that's designed to handle the longevity risk that pension payments create.

• [By The Oxen Group]

  Finally, we are bearish on CRM in the near term and mixed in the long term. We recently published a long-term outlook on CRM with a Hold rating. We do see the company as quite overvalued in the sense of future P/E, which stands at 66. Further, we believe that the company will see rising competition from the likes of Oracle (ORCL) and IBM (IBM) who want a larger piece of the cloud network pie. In the near term, we believe CRM could see some pretty strong correcting with such large valuations, but in the long term, we do see CRM as being a much better potential play than some other cloud networking companies. CRM will likely see a hit if the market corrects as investors abandon high growth names during market corrections. Further, CRM cannot make any mistakes moving forward to continue to maintain that P/E ratio.

• [By Jessica Alling]

  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) is in a close second to Microsoft with a 1.81% rise this morning. The company is currently hosting the 2013 IBM Impact conference in Las Vegas, scheduled to run through May 2, with plenty of new developments being demonstrated via partnerships. First up is Neebula, which is scheduled to demonstrate the benefits of integration with IBM's Tivoli Service Management Software. The partnership allows customers to quickly and easily view the impacts of common IT incident reporting and alerts. But perhaps the most exciting for customers is the partnership between IBM and CEDRUS, which announced the new DreamFace for IBM BPM application. The new software will allow customers to develop rich user interfaces for browsers and mobile devices directly into the browsers -- no code, and cloud-based.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 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 George Kesarios]

  Finally, granted that BlackBerry is several years late coming out with a more sophisticated OS, and has let Google's (GOOG) Android and Apple's (AAPL) iOS take over market share; however, as the saying goes, never says never, because you never know what might happen in the future. Need I remind that Apple was once on the brink of bankruptcy and today it is the most valued company in the world?

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  While Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) may have come from a position of relative obscurity in the smartphone arena, recent reports show that its Windows Phones are starting to get traction. The big percentage increases in the company's share of U.S. smartphone sales, driven mostly by sales of the Nokia (NYSE: NOK  ) Lumia, are not a sign that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) or Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) need to get worried, but they are significant. As Microsoft battles�BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY  ) to be the No. 3 operating system, sales are critical.

• [By Dan Radovsky]

  Getting the right to offer the iPhone no longer has the power to lift a mobile carrier above the rest of the field. Despite making their pacts with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) , Nos. 3 and 4 U.S. mobile carriers Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S  ) and T-Mobile US (NYSE: TMUS  ) , respectively, are still being surprassed by the top two, AT&T (NYSE: T  ) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) .

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 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 M. Joy Hayes, Joy]

  Thus, a failure to protect these employees arguably puts Exxon at a competitive disadvantage against companies like Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , Shell Oil (NYSE: RDS-A  ) , and BP (NYSE: BP  ) which, according to the Human Rights Campaign, all offer better protections and benefits for LGBT employees.

• [By Claudia Assis]

  Energy companies in the Gulf also shut down about 40% of natural gas production. Several energy firms, including BP PLC (BP) , Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) , Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) ,�Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) �and Chevron Corp. (CVX) , began evacuating workers earlier in the week.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Offshore exploration risk
  Deepwater locations, especially off the coasts of Brazil and West Africa, have emerged as popular hotspots. For instance, Brazilian oil major Petrobras (NYSE: PBR  ) is planning to drill exploratory wells off the coast of Tanzania, where it holds 50% stakes in two offshore exploratory blocks, while Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) recently announced that it will move forward with the development of the Moho Bilondo "phase 1 bis" and Moho Nord projects located offshore the Republic of Congo.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Lately, energy stocks have made a nice comeback. After lagging the Dow for the first half of 2013, both ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) have started out July on the right foot, with Exxon hitting a new five-year high today and Chevron approaching its own all-time record-high share price.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 2014: 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 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.

• [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.

• [By Dan Burrows]

  Rival Colgate-Palmolive (CL) has different concerns, namely sluggishness in emerging markets where it enjoys commanding market share and derives more than half its revenue.

• [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.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Invest In 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 Selena Maranjian]

  Other large-cap stocks didn't do quite so well over the last year but could see their fortunes change in years to come. Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) , for example, gained 5% and yields 4.1%. With domestic tobacco companies challenged by tightening regulations, rising taxes, and a shrinking smoking base, many have assumed that Philip Morris is the best bet in tobacco. But in the third quarter, it posted the weakest results, with volume taking a sizable drop and a strong dollar reducing its earnings. Bulls like its innovation and share buybacks.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) is expected to report its Q3 earnings at $1.43 per share on revenue of $7.94 billion.

  Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.74 per share on revenue of $30.16 billion.