Best Blue Chip Stocks To Invest In 2014

There was big news out of the market for dividend and income investors last week. Two of the bluest blue chips, Microsoft (MSFT) and McDonald's (MCD), both announced big dividend increases.

Microsoft pleased the Street with a 22% increase to its dividend, climbing to $1.12 annually that equates to a current yield of 3.4%. Microsoft also announced another $40 billion share buyback program to replace its existing $40 billion authorization that is set to expire on Sep 30. McDonalds announced a dividend increase of its own, raising its payout by 5% to 81 cents per share, lifting its current yield to 3.3%.

But that got me thinking: Which companies from the S&P 500 are the most shareholder friendly, with the biggest dividend increases in the last 5 years? Here is a list of the top 5 companies from the last 5 years with the biggest dividend increases.

10 Best Clean Energy 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 Rich Duprey]

  Global tobacco giant�Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) announced this morning its second-quarter dividend of $0.85 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past three quarters after raising the payout 10% from $0.77 per share.

• [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 Rupert Hargreaves]

  After a�record�first half, tobacco stocks are now starting to pull back as the high-yield sector of the market is sold-off. During the first six and a half months of the year, Altria (NYSE: MO  ) matched the S&P 500 with gains of 17.5%, while�Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI  ) �climbed 24% and Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) �advanced�7.3%, all excluding dividends (the S&P 500 gained 18% over the same period). However, since the recent sell-off began, all three companies have wiped out most of their gains so far this year.��

• [By Tim Melvin]

  Some of the traditionally defensive stocks like Phillip Morris International (PM) and Merck (MRK) also fail our test for operating conditions and financial changes. Yield chasers have also pushed the value of their shares to unsustainable levels, and are unlikely to see much more than mid- to low-single-digit profit growth for several years.

Best Blue Chip Stocks To Invest In 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 Dan Caplinger]

  But amid the euphoria, it's important to keep a sense of perspective, and two of today's losing stocks make a more bearish case about prospects for the U.S. stock market. IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) was the worst performer in the Dow today, falling almost 2% after a Wall Street analyst downgraded the stock, citing sluggish emerging-market business activity. The drop comes after two straight days on which IBM has announced acquisitions, with today's purchase of private virtual-management company CSL following yesterday's closing on its buyout of SoftLayer Technologies, a cloud infrastructure company. Given the amount of influence IBM has on the Dow, a failure of the company to execute on its earnings-growth promises could point to difficulty throughout the tech sector, hurting one substantial contributor factor in the Dow's four-year bull market.

• [By Chris Neiger]

  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) just launched a $1 billion initiative to build and test Flash technology for enterprise solutions. The company said that Flash is already an integral part of consumer products, and that the technology could help companies tackle Big Data challenges.

Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 Adam J. Wiederman]

  Alamy They're "the gift most everyone buys for the holidays," according to USA Today. This holiday season alone, nearly 81 percent of shoppers will buy at least one gift card -- totaling nearly $30 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. The benefits of buying gift cards are clear: They make great last-minute gifts (in a way that seems more personal than cash) and they vastly reduce the odds of you getting someone something just don't want or will never use. In fact, the percentage of consumers who made a holiday return has plummeted over the past few years as gift card purchases rose, according to data from America's Research Group. But if you're not careful, these gift cards could end up leaving you -- or your giftee -- with less money than you thought. Hidden Fees and Dates Recent changes to federal law have made gift cards even more consumer-friendly. For example, gift cards must now remain valid for five years. This law has worked as intended -- the amount unused on gift cards now only totals 1 percent of total sales ... down from 6.4 percent just four years ago, according to CEB TowerGroup. But this unused amount still totals more than $1 billion each year. To make sure your gift card purchase (or receipt) isn't included among these sunk costs, here are some tips to remember whether you're on the giving or receiving end of a gift card this year. If You Are Purchasing a Gift Card: 1. Stick to buying store-branded gift cards. Bankrate.com's annual Gift Card Survey uncovered that the major gift cards offered through banks and credit card companies (generic Visa (V) or American Express (AXP), for example) charged either purchase fees or maintenance/inactivity fees (or both). On the other hand, only a small handful of store-branded cards reviewed carried similar fees. 2. Send either an e-gift card or purchase the gift card in store. Many gift cards (even store-branded ones) carry purchase fees disguised as "delivery fees." For example,

Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  McDonald�� is a well-recognized company that fulfills cravings and demand for quick and delicious food choices that many consumers across the globe enjoy. A recent earnings release has not pleased the markets. The stock has been trading sideways in the last couple of years and looks be headed lower. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been rising. However, investors have not been happy with recent earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, McDonald’s has been a weak year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what McDonald’s does this quarter.

Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 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.

• [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.

Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 Brian Stoffel]

  2. Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) , P/E of 9.5
  Sometimes, it can be tough for large oil companies to get much love from Wall Street. With a market cap of more than $240 billion and sales expected to remain relatively flat over the next four years, it's understandable that most investors aren't willing to pay a premium for Chevron.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Another indicator of speculative activity, according to Khan's paper, is the divergence of oil and gold prices during the bubble years. The gold price spike after the turn of the century is well-known, but oil prices actually exceeded this increase, and in the first half of 2008 oil prices shot up by 50%, while gold gained only 13%. Oil and gas company stocks also diverged from oil prices near the peak of the bubble: Oil prices doubled in the year leading up to the peak, but both ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) were flat. In the year following the peak, oil prices fell by 60%, but stocks of the two oil supermajors lost roughly 25% apiece.

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Richard Drew/AP NEW YORK -- The stock market started November on a strong note as investors reacted to an expansion in U.S. manufacturing last month. The improvement came during what could have been a difficult month for the U.S. economy, with a partial government shutdown that lasted 16 days and a narrowly averted default on the U.S. government's debt, which could have rattled financial markets. "With what happened in the last two months, it's amazing how strong this market has been," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing index increased to 56.4, the highest level since April 2011. That was better than the 55.1 figure economists were expecting, according financial data provider FactSet. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) rose 69.80 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,615.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) rose 5.10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,761.64. The Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose 2.34 points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,922.04. Energy stocks lagged the market after Chevron (CVX) reported that its third-quarter income fell 6 percent, missing analysts' estimates, due to weakness in the company's oil refining business. Chevron fell $1.95, or 1.6 percent, to $118.01. The energy sector was also weighed down by a drop in the price of oil. Crude oil fell $1.77, or 1.8 percent, to $94.61 a barrel. The positive start to this month's trading comes after a strong October for the stock market. The S&P 500 closed at a record high seven times during the month, most recently on Tuesday. It ended October with a gain of 4.5 percent. However, some investors have expressed skepticism that stocks can keep up this rapid pace pace heading into the last two months of the year. The S&P 500 is up 23 percent so far this year, while the average annual return on the S&P 500 is around 8 percent. Stocks are also starting to look expensive by some measures. Investo

• [By Claudia Assis]

  Major oil and gas companies were lower, with shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) �down 0.9%. Chevron Corp. (CVX) �shares retreated 0.4%, while shares of ConocoPhillips (COP) �were off 0.1%.

Best Blue Chip Stocks 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 Adam Levine-Weinberg]

  BlackBerry's decision to jettison the PlayBook is a good one. The device never had a chance at replicating the user experience Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) created with the iPad, because of a lack of developer support. With Android vendors including Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) and even Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) itself selling high-quality 7-inch tablets for $200 or less, it became virtually impossible for competitors (aside from Apple) to make money in this market.

• [By Daniel Kline]

  The move may make sense for YouTube but it puts the company in a crowded space where the established leaders Spotify and�Pandora Media� (NYSE: P  ) actually lose more money with each new subscriber they add. The streaming music market also includes�Amazon� (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) , which has its limited but free for Amazon Prime members service Amazon Prime Music, and Apple� (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) , which offers the free iTunes Radio as well as recent acquisition Beats Music, a paid service which sells for $9.99 a month.