Here are Credit Suisse's latest top stock picks

Published Wed, Jan 10 20181:09 PM ESTUpdated Thu, Feb 15 201812:51 AM EST

Credit Suisse shared with clients the firm's best stock ideas at the start of 2018, including eight new number-one top picks. This is the "'one-stop shop' for the research team's best ideas. Every U.S. research analyst identifies and ranks up to three top stock picks," analyst Arbin Sherchan wrote in a report Wednesday. The stock picks reflect a "current snapshot" of analyst ideas and vary across size and sector. Here are four companies that made Credit Suisse's recommended list along with share price targets. 1) FedEx ( FDX ) As a new number-one top pick at Credit Suisse, FedEx should benefit from its recent acquisition of international courier TNT Express, according to analyst Allison Landry. Her $283 price target represents 6 percent upside from Tuesday's close. "We continue to expect overall capital expenditure to trend down as a percentage of sales over the next two years while more capital expenditure is placed into the higher return on invested capital Ground network, improving the company's free cash flow conversion profile. We also expect FedEx to successfully execute on TNT synergies and for the acquisition to be accretive in fiscal year 2018. We believe FedEx is on a path to become a sustainable generator of free cash flow in the next few years." 2) Marathon Oil ( MRO ) Analyst Bill Featherston says Marathon offers one of the best oil and cash flow per share growth profiles in the energy space. His $20 price target is 10 percent higher than Tuesday's closing price. "Marathon's divestiture of its Canadian oil sands mining business coupled with two Permian acquisitions last year sharply improved the company's portfolio, a dynamic we believe is still underappreciated by investors. Meanwhile, Marathon offers one of the most attractive oil and cash flow per debt-adjusted share growth profiles among the global E & Ps driven by the combination of attractive absolute growth and free cash flow assuming just $50/Bbl. We also believe Marathon's "stale" U.S. resource potential and drilling location guidance are conservative and see upside potential to these figures without it pursuing another acquisition. However, Marathon still trades at a steep discount." 3) Nationstar Mortgage Holdings ( NSM ) Nationstar shares are set to pop 22 percent in the next year thanks to the company's shift toward a "less capital intensive" model, according to analyst Doug Harter. "Servicing profitability (pre-tax) has been improving while the company has been growing its subservicing mix - this shift toward a less capital intensive business model should allow for better returns on capital and better free cash flow generation. Currently trading near book value, current valuation fails to factor in any value for Xome (NSM's end-to-end online real estate services platform) - as returns on capital improve, we see this discount narrowing. 4) Waste Management ( WM ) With a new CEO at the helm, analyst Andrew Buscaglia is bullish on Waste Management. The new chief's emphasis on beating the competition to new technologies should carry the company's stock 3 percent higher. "We like the approach new CEO Jim Fish is taking with a focus on being an early adopter of game-changing technology. Waste Management has a structural advantage with its market share and some of the best disposal assets in the US. But there's still a long runway for efficiency gains and use of data to optimize pricing, logistics and costs. Given EBITDA growth aided by savings and a potential windfall from tax reform means free cash flow levels are sustainable. We think Waste Management will prove to be cheap.

Getty Images

Credit Suisse shared with clients the firm's best stock ideas at the start of 2018, including eight new number-one top picks.

This is the "'one-stop shop' for the research team's best ideas. Every U.S. research analyst identifies and ranks up to three top stock picks," analyst Arbin Sherchan wrote in a report Wednesday.

The stock picks reflect a "current snapshot" of analyst ideas and vary across size and sector.

Here are four companies that made Credit Suisse's recommended list along with share price targets.