Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In Right Now

Sometimes boring can be beautiful, which has held especially true for tech blue chip�IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) . By sticking to its knitting and making gradual improvements consistently over time, this established name has managed to nearly double the performance of the broad markets over the last decade. However, the stock has seen its fair share of volatility in the last several months on the heels of a weaker-than-expected Q1 earnings performance. In the video below, Fool contributor Andrew Tonner takes a closer look at IBM. Is it a buy today?�

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Top Warren Buffett Companies To Buy Right Now: 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 Laura Brodbeck]

  Thursday

  Earnings Expected From: Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD), Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) Economic Releases Expected: French trade balance, British trade balance, eurozone consumer confidence, German industrial production, Bank of England interest rate decision, European Central Bank interest rate decision, US initial and continuing jobless claims, Chinese trade balance

  Friday

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $1.16 per share on revenue of $7.01 billion.

  UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $1.09 per share on revenue of $31.99 billion.

• [By Kelley Wright]

  Tobacco is a controversial business; but for Philip Morris International (PM), it's a market basically unaffected by economic slowdowns or rising commodity prices, which means it is stable and defensive; a combination we can live with. We also like the $3.76 dividend, outstanding growth, and a five-year average return on equity of over 160.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In Right Now: 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]

  Stocks have tumbled after a slightly stronger open as Visa (V),�American Express�(AXP),�United Technologies (UTX), Noble Corp (NE) and PVH Corp. (PVH) slide.

  REUTERS

  The S&P 500 dropped 1.2% to 1,846.34, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 231.19 points, or 1.4%, to 16,108.89.

  While a solid U.S. jobless claims number helped boost U.S. markets this morning, international concerns are coming to the fore once again. Tensions in the Ukraine are escalating– Russia is said to have 200,000 troops at ready and is reported to be readying itself for Iran-like sanctions–while China’s industrial production rose just 8.6% in January and February, down from a 9.7% increase in December. And though largely forgotten, all this turmoil comes against a backdrop of monetary policy uncertainty in the US.

  Capital Economics’ Julian Jessop says “China concerns still look exaggerated.” He writes:

  China�� continuing economic slowdown is clearly bad news for some commodity exporters. However, the world as a whole should actually benefit from slower but better-balanced growth in China. The risk of a ��ard landing��is also still small and perhaps even diminishing as a result of recent policy moves, despite the latest concerns about the health of the shadow banking system…

  [We] we would be wary of interpreting the recent slump in the price of copper as a warning sign of broader problems in the global economy. This slump has been compounded by factors specific to the industry, such as the impact of the China�� credit clampdown on the use of metals for financing. And as it happens, the Baltic Dry Index of global shipping costs, a rival bellwether, is actually rebounding again. However, we would put more weight on direct evidence from economic indicators such as the global PMIs, which have held up pretty well.

  Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards takes coppers decline as just that&#

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In Right Now: 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 Claudia Assis]

  Major oil companies, however, declined, with shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) �down 0.1%. Chevron Corp. (CVX) �shares were off 0.3%, while shares of ConocoPhillips (COP) �fell 0.4%.

• [By Tannor Pilatzke]

  Chevron (CVX) also had phenomenal growth numbers over the 23-year span, growing from 251 Million to 26.179 Billion or a whopping 22.39% CAGR.

  Looks like Buffett�� bet would have paid off with only 7 companies from the 1990 Fortune 500 growing both revenue at 13%+ and net income at 15%+. It is crazy to think that if one took the Fortune 500 in 1990 (or possible now), with the goal of at least a 15% CAGR from investment, the chances of doing so would only be about 3.5%.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) opened flat this morning and peaked in mid-afternoon before sliding gack a little. Chevron has been the favorite big oil stock for about two years now and even though the stock is trading near its yearly high, sparse demand for equities today must have looked like a buying opportunity. Shares for this Dow 30 stock closed up 0.87% at $123.36 in a 52-week range of $105.75 to $127.83.

• [By Sara Murphy]

  Flash-forward to today, and there's a growing movement to divest from hydrocarbons in order to deal with climate change. Part of this movement is 350.org, an organization that urges college and university endowments to divest their shares of fossil fuel companies. The group takes particular aim at Transcanada (NYSE: TRP  ) because of the heavy carbon impact of the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as those companies most exposed to the "carbon bubble," including BP (NYSE: BP  ) , Shell (NYSE: RDS-A  ) , and Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) .

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In Right Now: 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 Sam Mattera]

  Although the deal has not yet been formally announced, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is still expected to acquire Beats Electronics at some point in the near future. Much has already been written about the purchase -- its potential to bring a level of fashion to Apple's future wearables, Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine's music industry experience -- but what I find most interesting is what it says about Apple's iTunes business.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Among holdings in which Diamond Hill increased its stake were Liquidity Services (NASDAQ: LQDT  ) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) . Liquidity is a commercially focused online auctioneer and a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. It benefits from a relatively capital-light business model and solid profit margins, and it specializes in surplus, wholesale, and salvage assets. Some worry about slowing growth and competition and didn't like the company lowering expectations last quarter. But the stock jumped recently on a big revenue increase.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In Right Now: 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 Rich Bieglmeier]

  McDonald's Corp. (MCD) plans to release third quarter results before the market opens on October 21, 2013 and will host an investor webcast afterwards.

• [By Paul Vigna]

  Coca-Cola, McDonald's (MCD), DuPont, United Technologies (UTX) and Verizon (VZ) all reported earnings before the bell. Microsoft reports after the market closes. The Street was not impressed. Of the five that reported, only Verizon is higher in midday trading; the others are all in the red, with Coke down 3%. That’s on a day when the Dow itself is up about 70 points.

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  By combining the food qualities from La Boulange and the drive-through in more car-centric locations, its easy to see how even McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) might be in for a fight with the fast-food crowd.

Hot Blue Chip Companies To Watch In 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 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 James Well]

  Analysts��Consensus Position on Pfizer
  
  Thirteen analysts including those at TheStreet, Thomson Reuters/Verus, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and Argus Research are optimistic about the performance of Pfizer going forward and, hence, reiterated a consensus buy recommendation at an average target price of $31.78 per share. Last Wednesday, analysts at Goldman Sachs removed Pfizer from Goldman�� conviction buy list (CL) where Pfizer has been since Aug. 9, 2011, and placed it on the buy list but raised its price target from $34 to $35 per share. Jami Rubin, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, claimed that Pfizer has gone up by 82.5% since being added to the CL as against 53.9% for the S&P 500 during the period and, therefore, there was the need to replace Pfizer with AbbVie at a price target of $60 because they claimed AbbVie has greater upside at this time.