The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is home to a good number of shares with true blue chip status.
But given the numerous choices that investors have, it can be hard to decide which ones to include in your portfolio.
In order to narrow things down, I have picked out two blue chip ASX 200 shares which are highly rated right now. They are as follows:
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
The first ASX 200 blue chip share to consider is CSL. It is one of the world's leading biotechnology company, responsible for the CSL Behring and Seqirus businesses.
These two businesses are leaders in their respective fields and have a combined portfolio of life-saving and lucrative therapies and vaccines which are generating billions of dollars in sales each year.
But management doesn't rest on its laurels. Each year, the company reinvests approximately 10% to 11% of its sales back into research and development activities. This means it is on course to invest around US$1 billion into these activities this year. This ensures that it remains at the forefront of innovation and has a pipeline full of potentially lucrative products.
The CSL share price has come under pressure in recent months due to concerns about plasma collections. Plasma is a key ingredient in many of its therapies and COVID-19 is making it difficult to collect. This appears to be driving up prices and is likely to hit the margins of its immunoglobulin products in the future.
Nevertheless, this should be a relatively short term headwind and offset somewhat by increased demand for flu vaccines made by Seqirus.
Analysts at UBS believe the weakness in the CSL share price is a buying opportunity. They have recently reaffirmed their buy rating and $346.00 price target on its shares.
Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)
Another ASX 200 blue chip share to look at is Goodman Group. It is an integrated commercial and industrial property group that owns, develops, and manages industrial real estate across the world.
Goodman has been a very impressive performer over the last decade and has generated strong total returns for shareholders.
This has been underpinned by management's highly successful focus on "investing in and developing high quality industrial properties in strategic locations, close to large urban populations and in and around major gateway cities globally, where demand is strong and transformational changes are driving significant opportunities" for its business.
Among its customers are fellow blue chips such as Amazon, Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL), DHL, and Walmart, to name just four.
One broker that is positive on the company's performance and its growth prospects is Morgan Stanley. It currently has an overweight rating and $20.90 price target on its shares.
