Some companies are in rapidly-growing sectors, have powerful brands, with significant moats. Indeed, such companies are often known as blue-chip stocks that will never go out of style.
There are many factors that render these timeless blue-chip stocks largely impervious to competition. For one, the tremendous power of their brands and the high barriers to entry in their sectors, provide pricing power. Accordingly, these companies are less-exposed to increased competition, and can enjoy higher profitability for longer.
However, there are some downsides to owning blue-chip stocks. Notably, these companies are unlikely to surge 10- or 20-times over the span of a few years. That’s because these companies are already at scale, and tend to grow less-quickly.
Nevertheless, for older and more conservative investors, reliable blue-chip stocks should constitute the lion’s share of a given portfolio. I think the following three names are great candidates to be included, for investors seeking timeless exposure to blue-chip stocks.
| MGM | MGM Resorts | $44.75 |
| VWAGY | Volkswagen | $16.67 |
| FSLR | First Solar | $209.90 |
MGM Resorts (MGM)
MGM (NYSE:MGM) is extremely well-leveraged to Las Vegas’ gambling boom, owning no fewer than 14 casinos in Sin City. Showing how well Las Vegas is performing, the revenue of Nevada’s casinos jumped 11.2% year-over-year to $1.24 billion. February was the 24th straight month that the winnings of the state’s casinos came in over $1 billion.
Given MGM’s 50% stake in BetMGM, one of the leading online sports betting companies, MGM is also well-positioned to benefit tremendously from the massive growth of sports betting. Sports betting gross gaming revenue soared almost 75% to $7.5 billion in 2022. Thus, with more states poised to legalize online sports betting, the sector’s boom should continue for many years.
MGM has a powerful brand in Las Vegas, as it owns many famous casinos on the city’s iconic Strip, including Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Luxor. Moreover, BetMGM has become a compelling brand in the online sports betting space. And there are very high barriers to competition on both fronts, as it takes a tremendous amount of money to acquire casinos on the Strip, or build a widely-used sports betting app.
Volkswagen (VWAGY)
As the world’s second-most famous automaker, Volkswagen (OTC:VWAGY) has a compelling brand. Notably, the automaker’s brand looks poised to strengthen as electric vehicles reign supreme. That’s because the automaker has one of the world’s top EV makers, with its EV sales climbing 24% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, new-vehicle registrations in Europe, where Volkswagen is based, jumped 29% year-over-year last month, showing that the continent’s auto market remains strong. Given Europe’s status as one of the world’s wealthiest geographies, the continent’s auto market should grow significantly for the foreseeable future.
In light of Volkswagen’s long history of making quality cars and the popularity of its electric vehicles, it will be challenging for competitors to de-throne Volkswagen from its perch near the top of the world’s automakers.
Despite these strengths, VWAGY stock has a meager forward price-earnings ratio of just 5.2-times.
First Solar (FSLR)
First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) has become one of the world’s leading makers of solar panels, and the company has established fruitful relationships with many extensive utilities that are beginning to rely on solar to a larger extent. In other words, First Solar has a very strong brand in the minds of utility executives.
Another factor making FSLR one of the most reliable blue-chip stocks to buy is its head start in manufacturing solar panels in the U.S. First Solar already has a major solar panel factory in Ohio. The company is also building another plant, while expanding its existing factory. Those factories will allow the company to benefit from the new extensive U.S. tax credits for U.S.-made solar panels.
Showing how robust First Solar’s business is becoming worldwide, and the extent to which solar is proliferating, First Solar recently won government grants from India for its 3.4-gigawatt plant in that nation. First Solar also obtained a vast 1.8-gigawatt deal from French company EDF Renewables last month.
As of the date of publication, Larry Ramer owned shares of MGM. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.