Forget Cyber Monday: Buy These 17 Blue Chips Instead

by Louis Navellier | December 3, 2013 9:45 am

As anyone who watched professional or college football over the Thanksgiving weekend can tell you, the best defense is a strong offense. This wisdom applies both on the playing field and on Wall Street right now because we’re in a unique market environment.

We are in the seasonally strongest time of year for the stock market. The seasonal strength is typically caused by year-end pension funding as well as the fact that folks tend to be happier during the holidays. In other words, as we gather to celebrate the holidays with friends and family, consumer sentiment tends to improve and that tends to rub off on investor sentiment and cause an early “January effect.”

But this time, it’s going to be a bit different from past years. Instead of a broad-based rally, we’re seeing a rotation into quality stocks as investors gravitate towards those stocks that are most likely to sustain strong sales and earnings growth. This flight to quality will likely carry over into the New Year.

So we need a strategy. Like the bargain hunters that are scouring the internet for bargain buys, we also need to focus on good deals. I’ll get you started by listing the latest upgrades and downgrades in my stock screening tool, Portfolio Grader[1].

Over the weekend I noticed 55 big-name stocks were on the move and have revised their ratings to reflect the latest data.

I’ll start with the 17 stocks that have been upgraded to buys.

Upgrades

Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
BAC	Bank of America Corporation	B	B
BBBY	Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.	B	B
BX	The Blackstone Group L.P.	B	C
CHKP	Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.	B	B
HIG	The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.	B	C
KSS	Kohl’s Corporation	B	C
LBTYA	Liberty Global Plc	B	C
LBTYK	Liberty Global Plc Class C	B	C
M	Macy’s Inc	B	B
MSI	Motorola Solutions, Inc.	C	B
NOK	Nokia Oyj	B	C
PAYX	Paychex, Inc.	B	C
RYAAY	Ryanair Holdings Plc	B	C
STX	Seagate Technology PLC	B	C
VIP	VimpelCom Ltd.	B	D
VLO	Valero Energy Corporation	B	C
WDAY	Workday, Inc.	B	C

Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
BBT	BB&T Corporation	C	D
COF	Capital One Financial Corporation	D	B
DFS	Discover Financial Services	D	B
DVA	DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.	D	B
EPD	Enterprise Products Partners L.P.	C	C
KRFT	Kraft Foods Group, Inc.	D	C
LINTA	Liberty Interactive Corporation	D	C
QCOM	QUALCOMM Incorporated	D	B
ROP	Roper Industries, Inc.	D	C
TIF	Tiffany & Co.	C	B
TSM	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing	D	C

Downgrades

Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
ADM	Archer-Daniels-Midland Company	B	C
BMO	Bank of Montreal	C	B
CNP	CenterPoint Energy, Inc.	D	C
D	Dominion Resources, Inc.	C	C
GLW	Corning Incorporated	C	C
KEP	Korea Electric Power Corporation	B	C
KORS	Michael Kors Holdings Ltd	C	B
NEE	NextEra Energy, Inc.	C	B
SLF	Sun Life Financial Inc.	C	C

Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
A	Agilent Technologies, Inc.	D	C
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	D	B
ADI	Analog Devices, Inc.	D	C
AME	AMETEK, Inc.	D	B
APA	Apache Corporation	D	B
BCH	Banco de Chile	D	B
BNS	The Bank of Nova Scotia	D	C
DG	Dollar General Corporation	D	B
DUK	Duke Energy Corporation	D	C
GPC	Genuine Parts Company	D	C
HTZ	Hertz Global Holdings, Inc.	D	C
ITW	Illinois Tool Works Inc.	D	C
NBL	Noble Energy, Inc.	D	C
PAA	Plains All American Pipeline, L.P.	D	C
PEG	Public Service Enterprise Group	D	C
PPL	PPL Corporation	D	C
PSX	Phillips 66	D	D
SLB	Schlumberger NV	D	B

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/12/blue-chip-stocks-to-buy-bac-bbby-kss-m/

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