Blue Chip Stocks

Blue chip stocks are big, well-established, dividend-paying corporations with strong business prospects. These are companies that also have sound management that should be able to make the right moves to keep competing successfully in a changing marketplace.

The root of the term “blue chip” stems from the game of poker, as the blue chips represent the highest value. Investing in blue chip stocks can give you an additional measure of safety in today’s turbulent markets.

Pat McKeough believes investors will profit most, and with the least amount of risk, by putting the bulk of your stock portfolio in shares of blue chip companies—those that are well-established, with strong balance sheets and steady earnings and cash flow. These are companies that have bright prospects in healthy and growing industries.

The best blue chips offer both capital gains growth potential and regular dividend income. The dividend yield is certainly one of the most concrete indicators of a sound investment. It is the percentage you get when you divide the current yearly dividend payment by the share or unit price of the investment. It’s an indicator we pay especially close attention to when we select stocks to recommend in our investment newsletters.

We feel most investors should hold the largest part of their investment portfolios in securities from blue chip companies. All these stocks should offer good “value”—that is, they should trade at reasonable multiples of earnings, cash flow, book value and so on. Ideally, they should also have above average-growth prospects in expanding markets.

Meanwhile, when investing in any type of stock, at TSI Network we recommend using our three-part Successful Investor strategy:

1-Invest mainly in well-established companies;

2-Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);

3-Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

[text_ad]

Read More Close

Blue Chip Stocks

TD closes some U.S. branches

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $116 is a buy. The lender (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $197.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) settled charges over lapses in anti-money laundering processes at its U.S. retail banking operations in October 2024. As a result, it paid a fine of $3.09 billion U.S.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Royal Bank targets U.S. for growth

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $209 is a buy. The bank (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $292.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.5; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) aims to expand its wealth management division, which now supplies about 20% of its earnings.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

CN Rail is poised for a rebound

Despite the impact of U.S. tariffs on freight volumes, we continue to recommend all investors own at least one of Canada’s railways—Canadian National or Canadian Pacific Kansas City—given their importance to the national economy.

While CN’s shares are down about 5% since the start of 2025, we feel the stock remains an appealing buy. That’s because the company’s strong focus on efficiency should spur its earnings growth over the next few years.

4 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Updating two of our blue chip leaders

IBM and TC Energy are leading competitors in their respective markets; look for that to cut your ongoing risk. We see both as attractive buys.

IBM, $306.77, is a #1 Buy for 2025. The company (New York symbol IBM; Shares o/s: 934.7 million; Market cap: $267.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.2%; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer firms, with operations in over 175 countries.

2 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Visa continues to impress

VISA INC. $341 is your #1 Conservative Buy for 2025. The company (New York symbol V; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $647.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 16.9; Dividend yield: 0.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.visa.com) operates the world’s largest electronic payments network.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Intact Financial rebrands its U.K. and European operations

Intact offers investors exposure to Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. Intact insures more than five million individuals and businesses. Its major brands are Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink and belairdirect.

INTACT FINANCIAL, $261.97, is a Power Buy. The insurer (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 178.3 million; Market cap: $48.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%), in conjunction with Danish insurer Tryg A/S, completed its $9.3 billion U.S. takeover of U.K.-based RSA Insurance Group plc in June 2021. RSA offers a range of general and specialty insurance products.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

IBM forms key partnership

IBM, $268.49, is a #1 Buy for 2025. The company (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 931.5 million; Market cap: $266.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.4%; www.ibm.com) is now working on the development of large clusters of quantum computing chips, which should enable it to offer large-scale quantum computing in the next five years.

As part of that effort, IBM recently announced a partnership with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (symbol AMD on Nasdaq) to “develop next-generation computing architectures.” That plan will rely on a combination of quantum computers and high-performance conventional computing.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

We expect Procter to rebound

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $152 is a buy. The company (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $364.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.4; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) has five main business lines: fabric and home-care products such as Tide laundry detergent (36% of sales, 35% of earnings); baby, feminine and family-care goods, including Pampers diapers (24%, 24%); beauty items such as Head and Shoulders shampoo (18%, 16%); health-care items such as Crest toothpaste (14%, 15%); and grooming products including Gillette razors (8%, 10%). Walmart accounts for 16% of its overall sales.

2 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Two blue-chip stocks: one a buy, one a hold

METRO INC., $98.47, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol MRU; Shares o/s: 217.5 million; Market cap: $21.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.5%; www.metro.ca) operates 1,006 grocery stores and 639 drugstores, in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.

In its fiscal 2025 third quarter, ended July 5, 2025, Metro’s overall sales rose 3.3%, to $6.87 billion from $6.65 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly due to the opening of five new food stores.

2 min read

Pat McKeough

Blue Chip Stocks

Loblaw adds Specsavers

LOBLAW COMPANIES, $56.79, (Toronto symbol L; Shares o/s: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $67.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 1.0%; www.loblaw.ca) is a buy. The company will now welcome 111 new Specsavers locations to its stores across Canada. The eyewear chain will replace the Theodore & Pringle brand, which will cease operations.

The Specsavers locations will provide convenient access to comprehensive eye examinations, prescription eyewear, contact lenses, and specialized eye care services. All locations will be staffed by qualified independent optometrists and opticians.

1 min read

Pat McKeough

Testimonials

The cornerstones of Pat’s strategy–value, diversification and timelines–make his newsletter, The Successful Investor, highly profitable while minimizing risk. His advice is no-nonsense, down-to-earth and based on solid research. You’ll know what to invest in and what to avoid.

Chuck Chakrapani, PhD
Investors Association of Canada
The older I get the better dividends look. For retirees and would-be retirees who want to sleep at night, I can’t think of a better source of information on reliable growing dividend income than Pat McKeough’s newsletter, Dividend Advisor.

Jonathan Chevreau
Financial Post Columnist
As a manager of more than $500 million in mutual funds, I have access to the best brokerage research available in this country. But I still take time to read Pat McKeough’s premium newsletters

John Sartz
I appreciate the 25 years of above market returns I received by following your advice. at least 95% of my investment decisions were based on TSI recommendations.

Chuck J.
Subscriber since 1996. Inner Circle Member Since 2006
The newsletters I receive in Inner Circle Pro are fantastic! I have been following Pat’s advice for years and everything he has said has been amazing. His commentaries are brilliant, insightful, educational, rational and balanced. My returns are almost double the TSE and I have referred many of my friends who have switched over to your services.

Walter H.
Inner Circle Pro subscriber

Browse Premium Topics

Cannabis

Spinoffs

One of the ways a company can try to unlock its own hidden value is by creating a separate company out of a corporate subsidiary. The parent company can either sell stock in the new company to the public, or spin it off—hand the stock out to its own investors.

Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks make cash payouts that serve as a way for companies to share the wealth they’ve accumulated. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow and paid to the shareholders of the company. Typically, these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may be paid annually or even monthly as well.

ETFs

What are ETFs?

ETF is an acronym for exchange traded fund. These exchange traded funds are used to track indexes as closely as possible, since investors cannot actually buy an index outright.

Value Stocks

What are value stocks?

One of the sweetest and most profitable pleasures of successful investing is to buy high-quality “value stocks” (or stocks that are reasonably priced, if not cheap, in relation to its sales, earnings or assets), then hold on to them as mainstream investors recognize the value and push up the share price.

Blue Chip Stocks

Penny Stocks

A penny stock in general trades for under five dollars a share, and as the name implies, sometimes for pennies. Most of the time they’re young companies, or start-ups in speculative markets like mining or technology.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks are companies that are likely to have sales and earnings growth well above market average. Frequently they pay few, if any, dividends. Instead they typically reinvest any extra cash flow to promote further growth. Chosen wisely—according to Pat McKeough’s advice—high-quality growth-oriented stocks can be worthwhile additions to most well-diversified portfolios.

Wealth Management

Wealth management is the practice of putting your savings to work so that it continues to grow over your lifetime and will also benefit your heirs. Wealth management encompasses many different areas of investing like long term investment planning and retirement planning.

Mining Stocks

Mining stocks are investments in companies that produce or explore for minerals. Some of these minerals include uranium, coal, molybdenum (which is used in steelmaking), copper, silver and gold. They are affected by fluctuating commodity prices in addition to their own business and operating risks.

How To Invest

Pat McKeough has been making investing for beginners simple—and profitable—by helping investors make big gains for more than 25 years. His advice to beginning investors is the same as it is for all investors: buy high-quality, mostly dividend paying stocks (or ETFs that hold these stocks) and evenly spread your investments over the five main economic sectors (Resources, Manufacturing, Finance, Utilities and Consumer). Pat also believes investors should avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight and focus on those with hidden or little-noticed assets.

Energy Stocks

What are energy stocks?

Businesses that work in the extraction, refining and delivery of energy sources such as natural gas, oil, uranium and coal, are considered energy stocks.