If you're planning to add a few blue chip ASX shares to your portfolio in the near future, then I would suggest you consider the two listed below.
I believe these are among the best on offer on the Australian share market right now. Here's why I think they are in the buy zone:
Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)
I believe this supermarket giant could be a great option for investors looking at blue chips. Even those its shares have been on fire this year, I still see a lot of value in them for a long-term investment. This is due to its defensive qualities, refreshed strategy, and solid growth prospects.
In respect to the latter, I believe Coles' focus on cost cutting through automation and efficiencies will underpin solid earnings growth over the next decade. Another positive is its favourable dividend policy. Coles intends to pay out upwards of 90% of its earnings as dividends each year. This could mean plenty of dividend growth over the 2020s, which is very welcome in this low interest rate environment.
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
Another quality blue chip ASX share to buy is CSL. I'm a big fan of the biotherapeutics company due to its high quality CSL Behring and Seqirus businesses. CSL Behring is the global leader in plasma therapies and Seqirus is the second biggest player in the influenza vaccines industry.
I believe both businesses can grow their sales at a strong rate over the next decade thanks to their leading therapies and vaccines, robust demand, and lucrative research and development pipelines. Each year CSL invests somewhere in the region of 10% to 11% of its sales into research and development. This investment keeps its pipeline filled with ground-breaking products that have the potential to generate billions of dollars of sales in the future. Overall, I feel this could make CSL the perfect buy and hold option for investors today.
