Top 3 Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy Now

Investors should actually be trying to buy the stocks of high-quality firms with strong businesses, regardless of how the market is performing.

Unsuccessful companies may post significant returns in euphoric markets. But during bear markets, those are precisely the stocks that suffer the most.

Ticker Company Current Price JNJ Johnson & Johnson $164 MSFT Microsoft $235 CAH Cardinal Health $70.50

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Why is Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) one of the best blue-chip stocks to buy?

S&P 500 is down 22.4% from its high and 21.9% so far this year, JNJ stock is only down 10.3% and up 3.5% during those periods

The company pays out a 2.75% dividend yield and just last month, its management announced a new $5 billion buyback plan and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

Then on Oct. 18, Johnson & Johnson reported fiscal third-quarter results that beat analysts’ average expectations on the  top and bottom lines. Further, JNJ modestly boosted its full-year outlook. Trading at just 16 times earnings, JNJ stock is hard to ignore.

Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the best blue-chip stocks to buy, recently identified the “greedy price” at which investors should look to buy it if it ever falls that far.

Not all blue-chip stocks pay a robust dividend, and that’s okay. Given how many industries that Microsoft dominates around the world, it has a very strong business and competitive advantages.

Further, analysts, on average, expect the company to generate double-digit percentage earnings and revenue growth annually from now through FY26.

Trading at roughly 22 times earnings, the stock is starting to look like a bargain given the quality of its earnings.

Cardinal Health (CAH)

With its $18.5 billion market capitalization, Cardinal Health isn’t small, but it does tend to fly under the radar. That said, CAH is also the best performer of the three.

The shares reached all-time highs in September and are now just 1.5% below those highs! That’s impressive, given the state of the overall market. Further, the stock is up 37% this year and 43% over the past 12 months.

Its e dividend yield is approaching 3%, while the stock trades at a meager 13 times earnings despite this year’s rally. As for analysts’ average expectations, they call for roughly 9% revenue growth this year and 6.5% growth next year.

On the earnings front, the mean estimates call for just 4% growth this year but almost 18% growth next year. This is a name to keep on your radar and buy on weakness as long as the trend remains favorable.

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