Did you know that the magnificent seven—companies like Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Nvidia—make up more than a third of the S&P 500’s market capitalization? Unsurprisingly, blue-chip companies have dominated the markets for decades, providing investors with excellent returns through constant growth. In this article, I’ll explain how to find some of the best blue chip stocks to buy right now, then discuss their performance, dividends, if any, and why they could be a no-brainer for your portfolio.
Finding Blue Chip Stocks: Methodology
What is a blue-chip company?
A blue chip company in the U.S. is a large, well-established, and financially stable corporation with a history of consistent performance, strong market presence, and reliable earnings.
These companies are known for their high market capitalization, strong balance sheets, and industry leadership. If you don’t believe me, ask one of your friends if they can name five of the biggest companies in the world – chances are, they’ll name stocks like Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Coca-Cola without even thinking, and that’s even if they’re not familiar with the stock market. Blue chip companies dominate their industries and have built a reputation of reliability and success.
Market Cap
That leads me to the first metric we need to know: market capitalization, or market cap for short. This is a company’s value, calculated by taking its stock’s current trading price and multiplying it by the number of shares the company has in circulation.
Technically, any company above a $10 billion market cap is considered a blue-chip company.
For this analysis, however, I’ll bring up the minimum to $200 billion, so I’ll get the cream of the crop.
So that’s my first criteria: companies with a market cap exceeding $200 billion.
Buy Rating from Analysts
I’ll also consider what Wall Street thinks about the companies through their analyst ratings.
Analysts are professionals who follow companies carefully and rate stocks on a scale of strong sell to strong buy.
So, it’s natural, we want companies that rate higher, and there’s no higher rating than a Strong buy Rating, which I’ll use for this analysis.
However, I work a lot with data when researching stocks, so I am biased towards having more data points that align with a particular conclusion. That means a strong buy rating from one or a few analysts won’t be enough—I want stocks covered by 16 or more analysts.
The more supporting data, the more my conviction in a stock’s potential strengthens.
That’s why I limited my search to companies covered by 16 or more analysts.
Top 3 Blue Chip Stocks to Buy
With my three criteria set, I ran the screen and got 20 of the best companies in the world. Of course, we all have other things to do in our day, so I’ll cut that list down to the top three Blue Chip stocks, and discuss their potential so you can decide if they deserve a spot in your portfolio.
Amazon
First up on the list of Blue Chip stocks to buy is a company practically everyone knows about and is a member of the magnificent seven. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is a tech and e-commerce company that provides retail portals, digital streaming platforms, and cloud computing services.
I still remember when it was just an online bookstore, and now it’s one of the companies that emerged from the dot-com bubble. Today, Amazon continues to dominate e-commerce, cloud computing, and logistics while investing heavily in AI, automation, and sustainability efforts to shape the future of retail and technology.
Of course, it’s not all roses and butterflies for the company. Competition in the e-commerce space is tightening, with Walmart starting to eat away at its online retail market share.
The company is also playing catch-up with the likes of Microsoft, Google, and DeepSeek in the AI space. CEO Andy Jassy said that the company aims to spend $100 billion in 2025 for generative AI projects, which could potentially stifle its income growth over the year.
And that discussion frequently comes up in my Discord server – are companies doing well enough to convince you to buy it now, despite potential issues down the line? How do you, a retail investor, gauge a specific market headwind’s impact on one particular company’s future performance, without diving into hundreds of financial filings, news pages, and metrics calculations?
That’s the thing: you don’t have to. Analyst coverage is excellent for these situations. For example, the consensus for Amazon stock is a buy rating, which means a majority of the 50 analysts covering the company expect better things to come in the next twelve months. The high target price for Amazon stock is $306, which represents around a 53% potential increase from its current trading price.
ASML Holdings
Next up is ASML Holdings (NSADAQ:ASML). I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of ASML. The Netherlands-based company manufactures equipment used in chip manufacturing for smartphones, computers, and – you guessed it – AI components.
Here’s another quick lesson on investing in stocks: when a certain market or sector is getting all the attention, like with AI, always look upstream in the supply chain—to the producers of raw material or equipment—because chances are, not many people are aware of them, and those companies will also grow with the industry while relatively flying under the radar.
The company is crucial to supporting other big names like Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. However, it faces the same issues as other AI-adjacent companies—namely, potential weakening demand, increased exporting restrictions, and China’s own efforts to develop AI.
Twenty-four analysts cover ASML stock, and 19 of them it a strong buy and set a high target price of $1,100, representing an impressive 50% upside potential.
Broadcom
Like ASML, Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) operates in the tech industry, providing semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions to big names like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. This has led to an incredible 732.38% return over the last five years.
30 out of the 33 analysts covering AVGO rate it as a strong buy, with a high target price of $300 or about a 53% upside from current prices.
The 17 Other Buy Rated Blue Chip Stocks
Now that we have the top three, here’s the rest of the “Blue Chip Stocks to Buy” list.
- Alibaba
- Bank of America
- GE Aerospace
- Alphabet
- Coca-Cola
- Eli Lilly
- Mastercard
- Meta
- Microsoft
- Nvidia
- SAP
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Tencent
- Thermo Fisher Scientific
- UnitedHealth
- Visa
- Walmart
Conclusion
Blue-chip stocks have long been a cornerstone of long-term, stable investing, and as we’ve seen today, some of the best opportunities are in tech and AI-related industries. Amazon, ASML Holdings, and Broadcom each bring something unique to the table—e-commerce dominance, semiconductor innovation, and cutting-edge infrastructure technology—making them potential game-changers for investors looking for growth and resilience.
Of course, investing is never one-size-fits-all. The key is to research, evaluate your risk tolerance, and focus on companies with strong fundamentals and future potential. And if you want to dig deeper into stock market strategies, consider using stock screeners to help refine your watchlist.
Disclaimer: Rick Orford has positions in AMZN, ASML, GOOGL, LLY, MA, MSFT, TMO, UNH, and V.
