Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy Right Now

LONDON --�Shares in asset-management specialist�Schroders (LSE: SDR  ) �have strode consistently higher since last summer, gaining almost 29% in the year to date and striking recent all-time highs of 2,212 pence in the process.

In my opinion, Schroders offers great value for investors seeking robust earnings growth and an increasingly remunerative dividend policy, which I believe should drive the shares still higher in the near future.

Managed assets strike record in 2012
Schroders announced last month that net revenues slipped 3% to 1 billion pounds during 2012, exacerbated by a 17% drop in turnover at the firm's Private Banking division. This shortfall helped push pre-tax profits 12% lower to 360 million pounds.

However, the blue chip continued to witness surging activity last year, helped by its diversification across a multitude of asset classes and products. In fact, Schroders saw new net business inflows leap to 9.4 billion pounds last year, rocketing up from 3.2 billion pounds in 2011. And this pushed assets under management to record levels, at 212 billion pounds, up more than 13% on the previous year.

Top 10 Blue Chip 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 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 Maxx Chatsko]

  However, you would be hard-pressed to find any connection between falling smoking prevalence and share performance at Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI  ) , Lorriland (NYSE: LO  ) , Phillip Morris (NYSE: PM  ) , and Altria (NYSE: MO  ) . These companies are some of the best performers in the past decade. In fact, Altria is the best-performing stock of the last half-century!

• [By GuruFocus]

  The decade low yield of tobacco stocks can be clearly seen from our new interactive charts, which are embedded below. The chart shows the dividend yield of three tobacco stocks: Reynolds American (RAI), Philip Morris International (PM) and British American Tobacco (BTI).

• [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 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 Jeremy Bowman]

  Four Dow stocks reported earnings today with Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) and UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH  ) releasing in the morning, and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) and IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) coming in after hours.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  IBM is a global technology company that provides widely-adopted �products and services to companies and consumers. Recently, the company issued a positive earnings report for the last quarter. The stock has not made much progress this year, but is now seeing a post-earnings pop. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been decreasing, while revenue figures have been increasing, which has produced mixed feelings among investors. Relative to its peers and sector, IBM has been a weak year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what IBM does in coming weeks.

Best Stocks To Invest In: 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 Paul Ausick]

  A fourth DJIA component, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) weighed on the DJIA today, trading down on a weak same-store sales report for November. Even Mickey D’s stock experienced lighter volume today, trading only about 80% of its daily average of 5.1 million shares. The stock closed at $95.70 on Monday, down 1.14% in a 52-week range of $86.81 to $103.70.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  What the minimum wage means for investors
  The minimum-wage debate often leads investors to focus on McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) and its fast-food peers, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) and similar retailers, and other businesses where relatively low wages are an integral part of the viability of their business models. Yet many workers at those businesses earn more than the minimum wage, making increases largely moot. Moreover, the fact that McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and similar businesses maintain profitable operations in Washington, Oregon, and other higher minimum-wage-rate states suggests that companies can make adjustments to remain successful -- albeit perhaps at some cost to investor profits.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 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 Diane Alter]

  Athletic gear maker Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) steps into the place of Alcoa, a Dow component for 54 years. Payments company Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) will unseat HP, which joined the blue-chip benchmark in 1997. And Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) replaces BofA, which joined the index five years ago.

• [By Jane Edmondson]

  Green Dot (GDOT), a Pasadena, CA-based company, is a leading provider of prepaid MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V) debit cards. Green Dot products are sold in more than 60,000 retail locations including drug stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, and discount department stores. The company also has a discounted offering available exclusively through Wal-Mart (WMT).

• [By Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson]

  Both Visa (NYSE: V  ) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA  ) have consistently outperformed for investors, based on what many see as a rock-solid simple investing thesis: that these companies have nowhere to go but up as the world switches from cash transactions to credit. But is that thesis just a little too simple to be safe? And can the growth ahead really justify these very pricey multiples? In this video, Fool financial analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson discuss which of these two hot financial stocks is a more attractive buy today.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 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.

• [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 Travis Hoium]

  Colgate-Palmolive
  Toothpaste and toothbrushes may not be exciting business, but it's consistent and consumers tend to develop habits they rarely break. Once they find a toothpaste brand they like, it could be years before they try another one. That leads to another incredibly consistent business for Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , one that has paid back investors with a dividend since 1895. �

• [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.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 Jon C. Ogg]

  Credit Suisse is not impressed at all with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and its new iPhone 5 models. We agree, as does Bank of America/Merrill Lynch with its key downgrade this morning. That analyst downgrade was one of sentiment, but Credit Suisse’s downgrade of Apple is far worse because it involves a lowering of estimates and expectations. Tim Cook is still chasing the ghost of Steve Jobs and the Apple iPhone 5 refresh (and de-minimus model) are just not enticing any new interest.

• [By Daniel Sparks]

  With every uptick of the S&P 500, it's getting more difficult to find undervalued stocks to buy. Nevertheless, a few great businesses have been left behind amid the market's surge, particularly Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU  ) . Though both companies are definitely facing turbulence, a contrarian look reveals two excellent market leaders up for grabs at bargain prices.

• [By Jared Cummans]

  With a new iPhone device on the horizon, Apple (AAPL) has announced a new deal that will bring the famed mobile device to Japan.

  Japan’s NTT DoCoMo will begin carrying the iPhone starting this fall as the firm looks to increase its number of contracts and deliver the long-awaited device to its customers. The deal comes just ahead of the September 10th meeting where Apple will release the details on its latest iPhone model.

  On a macro scale, Apple has been trying to expand its reach into global markets for some time now, as the popularity of the iPhone has transcended U.S. borders. This move comes in a long line of others that look to make the tech giant a more global force.

  Apple shares were down $3.42, or .69%, at Thursday’s close. The stock is down just over 7% this year.

Top 10 Blue Chip Companies To Buy 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 David Smith]

  Bowing out of Egypt
  It's also noteworthy that Egypt shares a western border with Libya, which is a significant producer, but where chaos and contretemps also reign. Is it any wonder, then, that Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) announced on Tuesday that it will unload its Egyptian downstream operations, including 66 service stations and a couple of oil depots, to Total (NYSE: TOT  ) ? The French company is also buying the retail assets in the land of the Sphinx from Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-B  ) . Perhaps it knows something of which the rest of us are unaware.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Chevron (NYSE: CVX  )
  Although I believe most of Chevron's growth will come from natural gas assets in Australia and Asia, the company owns more than 500,000 bpd of refining capacity from the two largest refineries in California. That could provide a sleeper growth opportunity if the United States ever chooses to develop the Monterey shale in the central and southern parts of the state. Recent estimates peg the total reserves in the formation as high as 15.4 billion barrels -- twice that of the Bakken. There are serious water and environmental concerns that are lacking solutions at the moment, but the formation would be a big boon to refiners on the West Coast. Aside from potentially lowering gasoline prices for drivers in the region, the influx in cheap oil would certainly attract Asian countries that have fallen over each other to get to Canada's land-locked oil sands. The margins on Monterey exports could be huge, depending on recovery economics and oil quality. �

• [By Reuters]

  Richard Drew/APA board overlooking the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows an intraday number above 1,600 for the S&P 500 on Friday. A big gain in the job market lifted the stock market to a record high. NEW YORK -- The Dow and S&P 500 advanced to all-time closing highs on Friday, with major indexes jumping 1 percent after an unexpectedly strong April jobs report eased concerns about an economic slowdown. The S&P closed above 1,600 and the Dow briefly traded above 15,000 for the first time as stocks extended this year's rally. Bellwether companies, including Chevron Corp. (CVX), Boeing Co. (BA) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), reached 52-week highs. The Russell 2000 stock index of mid- and small cap companies also hit a record, confirming the broadness of the rally. About 70 percent of stocks on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq ended in positive territory. Non-farm payrolls rose by 165,000 last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, a four-year low, from 7.6 percent, the government said. In addition, hiring was much stronger than previously thought in February and March. Investors welcomed the gains after weeks of disappointing data, including tepid manufacturing reports, that suggested the economic recovery was losing steam. "We were all wringing our hands over the past month but this alleviates fears about a sharp spring slowdown," said Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at Charles Schwab in Denver. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) was up 140.61 points, or 0.95 percent, at 14,972.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^GSPC) was up 16.63 points, or 1.04 percent, at 1,614.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMPX) was up 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, at 3,378.63. Both the Dow and S&P ended at all-time closing highs. For the week, the Dow rose 1.8, the S&P gained 2 percent and the Nasdaq rose 3 percent in its biggest weekly climb since the first week of the year. Sectors ti

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Compelling dividend
  Not only does ConocoPhillips offer steady growth, but the company pays a very generous dividend on its stock that's currently just below 4.4%. For perspective, it's a lot higher than Chevron's (NYSE: CVX  ) 3% dividend. While Chevron is in the midst of a major production growth phase, both companies are likely to grow projection by 5%. That means, all things being equal, ConocoPhillips has the potential to outperform thanks to that higher dividend.