5 Best Safest Stocks To Buy Right Now

LONDON --�Remember the good old days when investors held banking shares for their safe dividend income? The financial crash shattered that. More recently, banking stocks have been a recovery play for those investors brave enough to bet that the eurozone crisis wouldn't blow up in their faces. It's been a remarkably successful bet.

But if you're hankering for a safer play on the banking sector and yearn for those reliable dividends, it's worth having a look at�HSBC� (LSE: HSBA  ) (NYSE: HBC  ) . After recent broker upgrades, its shares are on a prospective yield of 5%, with a 4.2% historic yield in the bag. That's well ahead of�Standard Chartered�and�Barclays,�the other two dividend-paying banks. And HSBC surely has the safest dividend in the sector.

Safety in numbers
It's not just that HSBC is the second largest company on the FTSE 100, with a market cap roughly equal to the other four banks put together. HSBC's global footprint underpins its safety. With over 6,000 offices in 80 countries, its worldwide reach provides a strong competitive advantage to capture international trade flows and service multinational corporations.

Top 10 Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2015: Zweig Fund Inc (ZF)

The Zweig Fund, Inc. (the Fund), incorporated on June 30, 1986, is a closed-end, diversified management investment company. The Fund�� objective is to increase capital primarily with investment in equity securities, consistent with capital preservation and reduction of risk. The Fund�� principal stock market sectors as on June 30, 2007, included information technology, financials, industrials, energy and healthcare.

The Fund�� investment adviser is Phoenix/Zweig Advisers LLC. As of June 30, 2007, its principal industrial positions included Cisco Systems, Corning Inc., EMC Corp., Ford, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PowerShares QQQ, Nike, Nokia Corp. and Valero Energy.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Nathan Slaughter]

  Consider the Zweig Fund (NYSE: ZF). It's a closed-end fund that has $340 million in net assets, which are invested in a diverse basket of blue-chip stocks such as PepsiCo, Apple, JPMorgan, Comcast, U.S. Bancorp and Qualcomm.

5 Best Safest Stocks To Buy Right Now: Destination Maternity Corporation(DEST)

Destination Maternity Corporation engages in the design and retail of maternity apparel. It offers casual and career wear, formal attire, lingerie, sportswear, and outerwear. As of September 30, 2011, the company operated 2,352 retail locations, including 658 stores in 50 states of the United States (U.S.), Puerto Rico, Guam, and Canada; and 1,694 leased departments located within department stores and baby specialty stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It operates stores under the Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, and Destination Maternity names. Motherhood Maternity brand serves the value-priced portion of the maternity apparel business with stores located in regional malls, strip and power centers, and central business districts. A Pea in the Pod brand serves the medium-priced and luxury portion of the maternity apparel business with stores located in regional malls, lifestyle centers, central business districts, and stand-alone stores. Destination Maternity brand provides Motherhood and Pea merchandise with stores located in regional malls and lifestyle centers. The company also sells its merchandise on the Internet through DestinationMaternity.com and brand-specific Web sites. In addition, Destination Maternity Corporation offers Two Hearts Maternity by Destination Maternity collection at Sears stores in the U.S. through a leased department relationship. Further, the company distributes its Oh Baby by Motherhood collection through a license arrangement at Kohl?s stores in the U.S. and through Kohls.com. Additionally, it had 66 international franchised locations comprised of 15 stand-alone stores in the Middle East and South Korea under the Destination Maternity name; and 51 shop-in-shop locations in India and South Korea. The company was formerly known as Mothers Work, Inc. and changed its name to Destination Maternity Corporation in December 2008. Destination Maternity Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Philad elphia, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Destination Maternity (Nasdaq: DEST  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Maternity apparel designer and retailer Destination Maternity (DEST) raised its quarterly dividend 6.7% to 20 cents per share, payable on Mar. 28 to shareholders of record as of Mar 7.
  DEST Dividend Yield: 2.96%

5 Best Safest Stocks To Buy Right Now: Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.(CMG)

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. develops and operates fast-casual, fresh Mexican food restaurants in the United States, Canada, and England. Its restaurants primarily offer burritos, tacos, burrito bowls, and salads. As of December 31, 2011, it operated 1,230 restaurants, which includes 1 ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is based in Denver, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  4. Rolling like a burrito
  Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG  ) is back to beating Wall Street's profit targets.

  The 1,458-unit fast casual chain saw net income spike 22% to $76.6 million, or $2.45 a share. There was an tax credit padding results by $0.10 a share, but even then Chipotle blew out the $2.14 a share that analysts were forecasting.

5 Best Safest Stocks To Buy Right Now: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc(TMO)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. provides analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software, and services for research, manufacture, analysis, discovery, and diagnostics. Its Analytical Technologies segment offers analytical instruments to analyze prepared samples, software interpretation tools, laboratory information management systems, and laboratory automation systems; environmental instruments and integrated systems for environmental monitoring, safety, and security applications; and process instruments, integrated systems, and measurement solutions. It also provides diagnostics products used in healthcare laboratories to prepare and analyze patient samples; and biosciences products comprising reagents and consumables used in life science research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical production. The company?s Laboratory Products and Services segment offers laboratory equipment, including sample preparation, environment storage and handling equipment, and laboratory workstations; laboratory consumables; research market solutions consisting of chemicals, instruments and apparatus, liquid handling pumps and devices, and capital equipment and consumables; and healthcare market products comprising analytical equipment, diagnostic tools, and reagents and consumables. It also provides workplace and first responder equipment, protective gear, and apparel; and packaging, warehousing, distribution, labeling, pharmaceutical and biospecimen storage, and analytical laboratory services in the area of drug discovery and pharmaceutical clinical trials. The company serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions, government agencies, and environmental and industrial process control settings primarily in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include upgrades for both Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO  ) and DreamWorks (NASDAQ: DWA  ) . But it's not all good news. Turns out, despite projections of 43% revenue growth in Q1, one analyst is busy ...