2 Top Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy and Hold in 2026

Susan Dziubinski: I’m Susan Dziubinski, co-host of The Morning Filter podcast. Investors often own blue-chip stocks at the core of their portfolios. What are blue-chip stocks? Blue-chip stocks are the stocks of large, well-established, and financially sound companies that are leaders in their industries. They’re often considered less risky, given their financial stability.

So today, we’re looking at two undervalued blue-chip stocks to buy and hold, taken from Morningstar’s Best Companies to Own list. Our Best Companies to Own list includes companies with significant competitive advantages—or what we call wide economic moats. The stocks we’re focusing on today from that list are undervalued and have market capitalizations above $100 billion.

2 Top Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy and Hold in 2026

1. Microsoft MSFT
2. Bristol-Myers Squibb BMY

The first undervalued blue-chip stock to buy and hold in 2026 is Microsoft. Morningstar assigns the software giant a wide economic moat rating, stemming from switching costs, network effects, and cost advantages. Microsoft is in excellent financial health given its strong balance sheet, growing revenue, and high and expanding margins. We think Microsoft is well-positioned to benefit from several secular growth drivers, including artificial intelligence and public cloud. We model a 5-year compound annual growth rate for revenue of about 13%. We think Microsoft stock is worth $600, and shares trade well below that.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Microsoft.

The second undervalued blue-chip stock to invest in this year is Bristol-Myers Squibb. This company has carved out a wide economic moat with its strong portfolio of drugs and a robust pipeline. Bristol is aggressively repositioning itself to expand through some challenging patent losses between now and 2028, and we’re modeling in compound annual sales declines of 4% over the next five years. But Bristol is developing a strong pipeline to mitigate the patent losses on its top drugs, with a focus on areas like immunology, oncology, rare diseases, cardiology, and neurology, where there’s a higher level of unmet medical need. We think the market is underestimating Bristol Myers Squibb; we think shares are worth $66.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Bristol-Myers Squibb.

For more stock ideas, be sure to tune into The Morning Filter each week, wherever you get your podcasts. And visit Morningstar.com, too.

Morningstar director Karen Andersen and senior analyst Dan Romanoff provided the research behind this segment.

Watch 3 Top Value Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026 for more from Susan Dziubinski.