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We are almost a third of the way into 2026. Despite a climate of elevated geopolitical and economic risk, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares is now 3% higher than at the start of the year. It even hit an all-time high along the way, although has since fallen back from that.
Despite the index’s strong performance, though, not all of its 100 constituent members are doing so well.
Here are three blue-chip UK shares I think potentially look cheap from a long-term perspective — and worth considering.
Associated British Foods
For years, Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF) has faced a couple of ongoing challenges.
One is how to convince customers that foodstuffs and ingredients deserve a price premium. Using brands like Twinings can help, but ABF’s portfolio contains unbranded as well as branded products.
A second challenge has been getting investors to value the Primark discount clothing chain attractively. Its loyal customer base and strong brand can sometimes feel overlooked by investors.
Those challenges persist as April ends.
Inflation driven by the Middle Eastern war threaten the food business’s profit margins, though for now the company has said the cost consequences for this year ought to be “manageable“.
This month also saw plans to demerge Primark as a standalone listed company. Over time, that could help unlock value if investors perceive it differently out of the ABF structure. Meanwhile, ABF’s foods business is unexciting but well-run and profitable.
Taken together, the company’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 14 and 3.6% yield look attractive to me following a 14% share price fall so far this year.
Reckitt Benckiser
A FTSE 100 company that has had an even worse start to 2026 is Vanish-owner Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RKT).
Its share price has plummeted by a quarter so far this year. The P/E ratio of 10 is even cheaper than ABF. Reckitt’s 4.6% yield is well above the 3.0% average of the FTSE 100 overall.
Reckitt clearly has challenges that have hurt its share price. Take your pick: ongoing legal risks in its infant formula business, ingredient cost inflation, weakening consumer sentiment in key markets, like-for-like sales declines in both North America and Europe in the first quarter – and more.
But I think Reckitt also has the tools to deal with such challenges over time. Its premium brands give it pricing power and it operates in product categories that will endure, like detergents and cleaning agents.
It may take years, but I expect Reckitt will ultimately be worth considerably more than today.
WPP
Still, I could have the balance of risks and potential rewards wrong with Reckitt. Nobody knows the future. An even trickier share in that respect is ad group WPP (LSE: WPP).
The WPP share price has crashed by 21% so far this year. That is on top of a dreadful performance last year, meaning it has more than halved in 12 months.
The clear culprit? AI.
Investors are fretting that AI could eat ad firms’ business.
So far, WPP has not convincingly reassured them. Like-for-like revenue fell 4% year on year in the first quarter.
Still, with its 5.6% dividend yield, deep expertise, superb client roster, and its own plans to use AI to help the business, WPP looks potentially cheap to me, although risky.
I plan to hang onto my shares.
