The illustrious S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is home to a good number of quality blue chip shares.
So many, in fact, it can be hard to decide which ones to include in your portfolio.
In order to narrow things down, listed below are two blue chip ASX 200 shares that are highly rated right now. They are as follows:
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REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
The first ASX 200 blue chip ASX share to look at is property listings company REA Group.
It has been a consistently solid performer over the last decade despite whatever the economy or housing market has thrown at it. The good news is that this trend is expected to continue, with REA forecasting growth during the second half of FY 2022 despite listing volumes falling. Management expects this to be underpinned by higher Residential and Commercial yields, supported by contracted price rises and increased depth penetration.
So, with the REA share price down by a third in 2022, now could be the time to make a patient buy and hold investment. That's the view of Goldman Sachs, which recently reiterated its buy rating with a $164.00 price target.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC)
Another blue chip 200 ASX share to look at is Westpac. It recently released its half year results and revealed an 8% decline in revenue to $10,230 million, a 12% reduction in cash earnings to $3,095 million, and a 61 cents per share interim dividend.
While weaker year on year, this still compared favourably to the Visible Alpha consensus estimate for first-half cash earnings of $2.8 billion and an interim dividend of 59 cents per share.
But the big news was that Westpac has reiterated its cost reduction plans. Australia's oldest bank is aiming to reduce its cost base to $8 billion by FY 2024. This compares to operating costs of $13.3 billion in FY 2021. Though, those numbers include $2.3 million of notable items.
This went down well with analysts at Citi. In fact, its analysts believe Westpac could deliver "the strongest EPS growth in the sector" in the coming years.
In light of this, its analysts have put a buy rating and $29.00 price target on the bank's shares.
