Credit Suisse raises Microsoft price forecast, makes stock a top pick into earnings

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers a keynote address during the 2014 Microsoft Build developer conference on April 2, 2014 in San Francisco, California.

Credit Suisse raised its Microsoft price forecast and call the stock a top pick into earnings because of expectations its cloud business will grow faster than Wall Street currently expects.

Results from a recent Credit Suisse survey show that Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure is enjoying more popularity over its competitors.

“Our Outperform thesis on MSFT shares is centered on what we view as significant earnings power potential over the next few years,” wrote Credit Suisse analyst Michael Nemeroff on Monday. “[Earnings potential] could be unlocked from (1) strong commercial cloud growth and (2) higher cloud gross margins due to economies of scale.”