Blue Chip Stocks

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.

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Blue Chip Stocks
TD BANK, $81.53, is a #1 Buy for 2024. The lender (Toronto symbol TD; Shares o/s: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $143.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.9%; www.td.com) merged its 43%-owned U.S....
IBM, $192.14, is still a buy. The company (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 918.6 million; Market cap: $175.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.5%) has shifted its focus in the past few years to its more-profitable cloud computing, consulting and mainframe businesses.


In the three months ended June 30, 2024, IBM’s revenue rose 1.9%, to $15.77 billion from $15.48 billion a year earlier.


Thanks to a plan to improve productivity, earnings per share, before one-time items, gained 11.5%, to $2.43 from $2.18....

WALMART INC. $71 is a buy. The retail giant (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 8.1 billion; Market cap: $575.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) has signed a deal to open Mr....
2024 is the third year in a row that we’ve made McDonald’s our top Conservative buy. The stock is down 15% since the start of the year, but we continue to see the company’s prospects as bright.


McDonald’s is also doing a good job adjusting to changing economic conditions....
Long-time readers know that we aim to keep you informed of important news about the stocks we cover. That means highlighting developments and plans that promise to bolster investor gains. Here are two buys that stand out this month:


LUNDIN GOLD, $23.41, is a buy. The miner (Toronto symbol LUG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (www.lundingold.com; Shares outstanding: 239.6 million; Market cap: $5.6 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%) owns and operates the Fruta del Norte mine in Ecuador.


The company continues to post higher gold production....

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an example of an investment idea that could boost your investment returns—or more likely end up costing you money. All in all, we think that the biggest, surest gains from AI will come from investing in established businesses that are already profitable and growing, and that can gain all the more by applying AI to their operations.


Here are two companies that are already profitably taking advantage of AI, and they should be among the leaders in the push to extend AI’s use:


EXPEDIA GROUP INC., $135.54, is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol EXPE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (www.expediagroup.com; Shares outstanding: 142.6 million; Market cap: $18.5 billion; No dividends paid) has just unveiled a new AI assistant, Romie....

CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $162 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 664.0 million; Market cap: $107.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.1; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest railway....
2024 is the fifth year in a row we selected CP Rail (now CPKC after its merger with U.S.-based railway Kansas City Southern) as your #1 Conservative Buy. If you bought the stock five years ago, at the start of 2019, you’ve enjoyed a 121% gain (excluding dividends)! Compare that to the 56% gain for the broader S&P/TSX Composite Index.


We’re even more excited about CPKC’s long-term prospects, particularly as it starts to realize the full benefits of the Kansas City acquisition....
METRO INC., $77.46, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol MRU; Shares outstanding: 225.7 million; Market cap: $17.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.7%; www.metro.ca) operates 992 grocery stores and 641 drugstores, in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.


Metro has formed a new alliance with AddÉnergie Technologies Inc....
LOBLAW COMPANIES, $161.79, is a buy. The retailer (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 306.0 million; Market cap: $49.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.3%; www.loblaw.ca) has gained about 35% in the past year, and recently hit a new all-time high of $164.94.


Loblaw keeps innovating to maintain its growth....