Buy These 5 Blue-Chip Stocks to Strengthen Your Portfolio in 2H25

Wall Street closed at a record-high level to finish a turbulent first half of 2025. However, a microscopic analysis of U.S. stocks reveals that despite a solid finish, the indexes witnessed the weakest first-half performance since 2022. Nevertheless, the bull run of U.S. stocks, which started at the beginning of 2023, continued till the first half of 2025.

U.S. stock markets started July with much vigor as both the broad-market S&P 500 Index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite recorded all-time intraday and closing highs. However, the blue-chip Dow lagged its two large-cap peers despite experiencing a northward journey this year. 

Year to date, the three major indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are up — 4.9%, 6.7% and 6.9%. Technically, at its current level of 44,458.30, the Dow is well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages of 42,450.91 and 42,692.75, respectively. 

At this stage, from an investment perspective, we have narrowed our search to three blue-chip stocks. Each of our picks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

These stocks have strong earnings growth potential for the rest of 2025. These stocks are: Visa Inc. V, The Walt Disney Co. DIS, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, The Coca-Cola Co. KO and International Business Machines Corp. IBM.

The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks year to date.

Visa Inc.

Visa’s strong market position is underpinned by consistent volume-driven growth, acquisitions and technological leadership in digital payments. Expansion in cross-border volumes, rising digital transactions, and investments in AI and stablecoin infrastructure enhance V’s prospects. 

Visa’s strategic acquisitions and alliances are fostering long-term growth and consistently driving revenues. V is fueled by continued increases in payments, cross-border volumes and sustained investments in technology, and is witnessing significant profit growth. 

The ongoing shift to digital payments is advantageous for Visa, with strong domestic volumes supporting its overall performance. With fraud cases on the rise and AI adoption increasing, V’s services are in high demand. V has embedded AI and generative AI into over 100 products, primarily for fraud prevention and cybersecurity. 

Visa has invested $3.5 billion in rebuilding its data platform. V’s technology helps prevent $40 billion annually in fraud attempts. Through strategic diversification, innovation, and AI-driven security, V is well-positioned for long-term growth.

Visa has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 10.2% and 12.9%, respectively, for the current year (ending September 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.1% in the last 30 days. 

The Walt Disney Co.

The Walt Disney reported steady second-quarter fiscal 2025 results wherein revenues and earnings increased year-over-year. Domestic Parks & Experiences saw growth at domestic parks, Disney Vacation Club and Disney Cruise Line, partially offset by the decline at international locations including Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.  

In Entertainment, DIS expects double-digit percentage operating income growth in fiscal 2025. ESPN continues to reinforce its position as a sports-dominant platform, with the second quarter delivering its most-watched primetime ever and 32% viewership growth in the key 18-49 demographic.

DIS has successfully transformed its streaming business from a loss-leader to a profitable growth engine. After reporting its first-ever Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) operating profit in fiscal year 2024, the momentum has accelerated in fiscal year 2025 with second-quarter DTC operating income reaching $336 million.

The Walt Disney has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 4.1% and 16.30%, respectively, for the current year (ending September 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.3% in the last 30 days.

Microsoft Corp. 

Microsoft capitalizes on artificial intelligence (AI) business momentum and Copilot adoption alongside accelerating Azure cloud infrastructure expansion. Strong Office 365 Commercial demand has been propelling Productivity and Business Processes revenue growth notably. ARPU increases through E5 and M365 Copilot uptake across key segments. 

MSFT’s Intelligent Cloud revenues advance through Azure AI development and AI Copilot business growth. MSFT’s strategic execution has been enhancing non-AI services through enterprise customer growth and operational scale improvements. Xbox content and services benefit from robust performance across third-party and first-party content offerings. We expect that MSFT’s fiscal 2025 net sales will increase 13.7% compared to fiscal 2024.

Microsoft has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 12.4% and 12%, respectively, for the current year (ending June 2026). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.3% over the last 60 days.

The Coca-Cola Co.

The Coca-Cola delivered a strong first-quarter 2025, marking its ninth consecutive quarter of beating top- and bottom-line expectations. First-quarter 2025 performance was driven by broad-based growth, improved price/mix, and effective execution of its all-weather strategy, which blends marketing, innovation, and revenue growth management. Innovation and marketing continue to drive KO’s brand momentum, with impactful campaigns and product launches.

Coca-Cola's all-weather strategy, combining marketing, innovation, and revenue growth management, supports its vision of a total beverage company and is expected to drive revenue growth in 2025. KO has provided an optimistic view for 2025.

Coca-Cola has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 2.6% and 3.1%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.3% over the last 30 days.

International Business Machines Corp.

International Business Machines is likely to benefit from heterogeneous, dynamic and complex infrastructure strategies, which, in turn, have led firms to undertake a cloud-agnostic and interoperable approach to highly secure multi-cloud management. 

A combination of a better business mix, improving operating leverage through productivity gains and investments in growth opportunities will likely boost profitability. IBM is betting big on the watsonx platform, which is likely to be the core technology platform for its AI capabilities. Strategic acquisitions to boost portfolio is a positive.

IBM is poised to benefit from strong demand for hybrid cloud and AI, driving growth in the Software and Consulting segments. Watsonx delivers the value of foundational models to the enterprise, enabling them to be more productive. IBM has integrated the open-source Mixtral-8x7B large language model into its watsonx AI and data platform.

International Business Machines has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 5.5% and 6%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 2.1% in the last 60 days.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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