I were to have a catch phrase of the day, it would be, “As January goes, the year goes.” And it’s no secret as to why this is on everyone’s mind. With the benchmark indices closing down over 2% today, the general fear is that February will go the way of last month–which was the first negative January in four years.
Between the emerging market jitters to the Fed’s tapering activity to mixed economic reports, Wall Street has found plenty of excuses to justify a correction. But where others see a bad omen, I see a good opportunity. That’s because this is still the best quarter for earnings that I have seen in over three years, and earnings are expected to improve over the next several quarters.
It all boils down to looking past the day-to-day market moves and zeroing in on the top stocks. We’re in the thick of a memorable fourth-quarter earnings season and I’d hate for folks to get caught up in the winter doldrums and miss out.
As always, an excellent place to start is with Portfolio Grader, which rates over 5,000 publicly-traded companies on fundamental health as well as their risk-to-return prospects. And this weekend was a big one for Portfolio Grader.
When I screened for large-cap stocks, I found no fewer than 77 blue chips that were on the move. You’ll want to review this list to see if you currently own any of these companies or are thinking about it.
77 Recommendations Straight Out of Portfolio Grader
Upgrades
Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| ALXN | Alexion Pharmaceuticals | B | B |
| AON | Aon plc | B | B |
| BAC | Bank of America | B | B |
| BCR | C. R. Bard, | B | B |
| BWA | BorgWarner | B | B |
| CERN | Cerner Corporation | B | C |
| CHKP | Check Point Software Technologies | B | B |
| CMCSA | Comcast | B | C |
| CMCSK | Comcast Corporation Special | B | C |
| COF | Capital One Financial | B | C |
| DOW | Dow Chemical | B | B |
| DTV | DIRECTV | B | B |
| EPD | Enterprise Products Partners L.P. | B | B |
| HCA | HCA Holdings | B | C |
| HRL | Hormel Foods | B | B |
| IRE | Bank of Ireland | B | C |
| KR | Kroger | B | C |
| LYG | Lloyds Banking Group | B | C |
| MHK | Mohawk Industries | C | B |
| NSC | Norfolk Southern | B | B |
| PFG | Principal Financial Group | B | C |
| PNR | Pentair Ltd. | B | B |
| SKM | SK Telecom Co | B | B |
| SNDK | SanDisk | C | B |
| SNN | Smith & Nephew plc | B | C |
| STX | Seagate | B | C |
| TEVA | Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited | B | C |
| TYC | Tyco International Ltd. | B | B |
| XLNX | Xilinx | C | B |
Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| BHI | Baker Hughes | C | C |
| BK | Bank of New York Mellon | D | C |
| CNI | Canadian National Railway | D | C |
| CNQ | Canadian Natural Resources | D | C |
| CSX | CSX | C | C |
| DUK | Duke Energy | D | C |
| EIX | Edison International | D | B |
| F | Ford | D | C |
| IP | International Paper | D | B |
| ITW | Illinois Tool Works | C | C |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase | C | C |
| KEP | Korea Electric Power Corporation | C | C |
| KRFT | Kraft Foods Group | D | C |
| PH | Parker-Hannifin | D | C |
| RCL | Royal Caribbean Cruises | C | C |
| ROST | Ross Stores | D | C |
| SLB | Schlumberger | D | B |
| SYK | Stryker Corporation | C | C |
| TI | Telecom Italia S.p.A. | C | D |
| VMW | Vmware | D | B |
Downgrades
Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| AAPL | Apple | C | B |
| AMAT | Applied Materials | C | B |
| BBT | BB&T | C | C |
| DOV | Dover | C | C |
| FMS | Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA | C | C |
| MDT | Medtronic | C | B |
| MMC | Marsh & McLennan | C | C |
| RF | Regions Financial | C | C |
Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| ABB | ABB | D | C |
| ALL | Allstate Corporation | D | C |
| BUD | Anheuser-Busch InBev | F | B |
| DISCK | Discovery Communications | D | C |
| GWW | W.W. Grainger | D | C |
| HES | Hess Corporation | D | D |
| HOT | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide | D | B |
| KO | Coca-Cola | D | C |
| LBTYA | Liberty Global | D | C |
| MAT | Mattel | F | C |
| MO | Altria Group | D | B |
| MS | Morgan Stanley | D | C |
| MTU | Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. | D | B |
| NMR | Nomura Holding | D | C |
| PG | Procter & Gamble | D | C |
| PHG | Royal Philips NV | D | C |
| SNE | Sony | D | D |
| SYMC | Symantec | D | B |
| TD | Toronto-Dominion Bank | D | C |
| TSM | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing | D | C |
