10 Best Blue Chip Stocks For 2014

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the video.

Q: I can invest Rs 5,000 per month and I want Rs 20 lakh in 10 years. How should I allocate that money?

A: Lal Babu, because your objective here is to make a corpus, you have set a target of Rs 20 lakh, within 10 years�time limit. If you plan to invest Rs 5,000 per month, your focus should be on asset classes where the real rate of return is more than inflation. Only then will be get good returns. So you can invest in equity funds. There are two funds �the HDFC Equity Fund , which is a multi-cap fund and has a very long established track record, you can definitely consider this. Second, would be the ICICI Focus Blue Chip Fund . As the name suggests, it invests in blue-chip companies.

So,  every month you can put in money in those two fund. When you are investing through SIP, make sure that the dates for both these funds are different, to enable you to get benefits out of the volatility in the market. If we are considering an annualised return of 12% and if you are continuing your investment process for 10 years, you can get a corpus of upto Rs 11 lakh, which would be a lot less than your target.

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks For 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 Tim McAleenan Jr.]

  And lastly, Mankiw mentions emerging markets. If you want to bet against the United States dollar and own a company that generates all of its profits outside the United States, it could be useful to take a look at Philip Morris International (PM). Asia makes up 37% of its profits. The Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe make up 27% of its profits. Smoking rates in countries like Indonesia are increasing at 10-25% annual rates. The Marlboro brand is gaining market share in Asia. The company is planning aggressive expansion into Central Africa. If you want emerging markets exposure, Philip Morris International could be a decent way to cover your bases.

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks For 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 Monica Gerson]

  Colgate-Palmolive Co (NYSE: CL) is expected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.73 per share on revenue of $4.46 billion.

  Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) is projected to report its Q2 earnings at $2.83 per share on revenue of $2.36 billion.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, it's starting to appear that Clorox has weathered a tough part of its business cycle. Throughout the industry, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , and Clorox all had to deal with rising costs for the inputs they needed to make their respective products. The companies responded by implementing price-cutting measures and passing on part of their higher costs to their customers. For its part, Clorox was able to expand its gross margins by a full percentage point, with a worse-than-normal flu season contributing to sales. Now that input-cost inflation is easing, P&G and Clorox expect to see better profitability, with growth starting to approach the faster rates that Colgate has enjoyed.

Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Own 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 Anders Bylund]

  Today, I'm looking at petroleum products giant Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) . The stock has trounced the returns of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) over the last 20 years, but reinvesting dividends along the way would have more than doubled your returns again:

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Even though the country has so much oil, it has struggled to keep up production growth and has asked for outside help. This week, Venezuela has signed financing deals with Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB  ) , and Russia's Rosneft that will total $5.6 to expand production. The country hopes to increase production from 3 to 5 million barrels per day by 2015.

• [By Victor Reklaitis]

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) climbed 69.80 points, or nearly 0.5%, to finish at 15,615.55. Chevron Corp. (CVX) slid 1.6% and fared worst among blue chips after its earnings report. The Dow advanced 0.3% for the week.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  Chevron provides essential energy products and services to growing companies and consumers worldwide. The stock has been on a bullish run for many years that has taken it to all-time high prices. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenue figures have been mixed, however, investors in the company have been mostly happy with earnings reports. Relative to its peers and sector, Chevron has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for Chevron to OUTPERFORM.

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 Jessica Alling]

  Other earnings
  McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) is also down in trading this morning after reporting lighter sales in many of its territories. Asia was the weakest geographical region, with lower sales in Japan and negative results in China. Overall revenue was up 1% and earnings were flat at $1.3 billion for Mickey D's, but the company still reported a 2% increase in EPS, though the $1.26 per share missed expectations by a penny. The fast-food chain is contending with some difficult comparisons to a strong period in 2012, making its results look weaker. The stock is down 1.84% as of this writing, with investors concerned about continued impacts of international economic headwinds and tougher outlooks for the coming quarters.

• [By Lu Wang]

  McDonald�� (MCD) declined 2.6 percent to $100.20 for the worst retreat in the Dow. The world�� biggest restaurant chain said sales at stores open at least 13 months fell 0.6 percent in April as growth slowed in its Asia-Pacific region. Analysts estimated a 0.5 percent drop, the average of estimates from Consensus Metrix.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Friday, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever surprises inevitably arise. That way, you'll be less likely to have an uninformed, knee-jerk reaction that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 Rick Munarriz]

  Market leader Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) was a market bleeder, as shipments plummeted 23.7%, but even former market darling Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is having a hard time selling its Macs and MacBooks these days. The consumer tech titan experienced a 7.5% dip in U.S. shipments during the period.

• [By Steve Heller]

  At Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) �recent Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Tim Cook announced that iTunes has a whopping 575 million active accounts with credit and debit cards on file. This revelation, coupled with a new iOS 7 feature known as AirDrop, could indicate that Apple is getting closer to entering the mobile payments space. In the video below, Fool contributor Steve Heller explains why�eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) PayPal unit could have the most to lose.�

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks For 2014: 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 Muhammad Bazil]

  It is no longer news that International Business Machine (IBM) released disappointing 2013 third quarter results. It is also no longer news that the stock has taken a beating since then from $186.73 per share it traded at the close of business just before the third quarter financials were released to the investing public on Wednesday, Oct. 16. The negative reactions of investors to the third quarter results were noticed during the extended hours of trading on that same day when the stock took a dip from $186.73 to $175.99 per share. That sudden dip in IBM�� stock price amounts to a loss of about 6% per share within a space of a few hours after the release of the third quarter results.

10 Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 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 Jae Jun]

  Having missed out on Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA), stumbling upon FleetCor is a pleasant surprise. FleetCor Technologies is a company that provides fuel cards and payment products used by employees. The company also has lodging cards, but since the overall concept is the same, I will focus most of the discussion on fuel cards.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  Visa strives to help consumers, companies, governments, and other entities by providing methods of easy transaction worldwide. The company recently reported earnings that made investors happy, and the stock is now trading near all-time high prices, with still more room to rise. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenue figures have been increasing, which has pleased investors in the company. Relative to its strong peers and sector, Visa has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Visa to continue to OUTPERFORM.