Credit Suisse's top picks for March include new addition Microsoft

Published Fri, Mar 10 20231:03 PM EST

Credit Suisse refreshed its top stock picks for March, as the market reversed its January rally and began a renewed sell-off. The S & P 500 is now up about 1.3% in 2023, through early Friday, after losing 2.6% in February as traders grow more anxious about the effect of higher interest rates on stocks and the broader economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell furthered investor pessimism on Tuesday when he told Congress that he expects rates to continue "higher for longer" due to persistently hot inflation. In light of the growing market uncertainty, Credit Suisse highlighted several stocks it thinks can nonetheless outperform in coming months. The bank added four new names to its list of top picks: Microsoft , T-Mobile , New Relic and NiSource . Analyst Sami Badri said that Microsoft is poised to benefit from the artificial intelligence boom. Badri added that an estimated $40 billion revenue upside for Microsoft from ChatGPT has not yet been priced into forecasts. "MSFT is a direct beneficiary due to its ownership position of OpenAI (effectively 75% today), and the associated exclusivity agreement around providing Azure infrastructure services to not only ChatGPT but for all OpenAI model needs which makes MSFT very relevant to the proliferation of AI-driven application productivity," Badri wrote. Microsoft shares have climbed more than 5% in 2023, helping the tech stock rally. The stock is coming off a losing year, having declined almost 29% in 2022. Credit Suisse set a price target of $285 per share, which implies upside of about 13% from Thursday's close. Credit Suisse also sees strong gains ahead for T-Mobile, with the firm's price target of $175 implying upside of about 24% from Thursday's close. "We expect rural and enterprise market share gains, modest growth from fixed wireless and enterprise advanced network services, merger synergies driving margins, and declining capital intensity, all paired with a levered stock buyback capital allocation strategy. We see this as quite compelling," analyst Douglas Mitchelson said in a note. T-Mobile shares surged 21% in 2022 and are unchanged in 2023. Meanwhile, software-as-a-service company New Relic is well-positioned to gain market share as its new management reinvigorates its product development capabilities, according to analyst Fred Lee. "As New Relic has (1) successfully reinvigorated a customer-centric product development capability, (2) transitioned to a [product-led growth] model, and (3) seen structural changes reflected in the company's fundamentals (e.g. positively inflecting unit economic margin and revenue growth rates), we believe New Relic's multiple could re-rate higher if the company delivers a few more quarters of steady execution and accelerates revenue growth," Lee said. New Relic shares have popped 27% this year through midday Friday, after sliding 49% in 2022. Lee's price target is $90, implying upside of about 25%. Other stocks on Credit Suisse list include Chipotle Mexican Grill, ServiceNow and Amazon. Chipotle shares have outperformed the market so far in 2023, rallying almost 13% this year. Analyst Lauren Silberman believes that the restaurant chain's "on-trend initiatives" are putting it on track to continue its strong performance. She added that the fast-casual chain is "a rare compounding growth story positioned for double-digit top-line, margin expansion & unit growth acceleration over the years to come," boosted by its resilient brand and sophisticated loyalty program. ServiceNow shares have also had a strong start to the year, gaining 7.5% through midday Friday. The company reported stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, and Credit Suisse's 12-month price target on the stock implies upside of 34% from Thursday's close. "ServiceNow's broad applicability and deep understanding of automation, management and enterprise workflows offer a long runway for organic growth as a 'platform-of-platforms,' and therefore is well-positioned to consolidate share of IT budgets as it cross-sells workflow automation tools into their existing customer base," Badri said. NOW YTD mountain ServiceNow stock Amazon was featured again on the bank's list of top picks. Analyst Stephen Ju believes that the fulfillment center capacity built out since 2020 will normalize by 2024. "With the higher-than-normal shipping costs due to misalignment of inventory no longer an issue, what is left is to grow into its higher capacity it built since 2020. Based on historical nominal dollars of YOY GMV growth 4Q to 4Q, Amazon will likely return to historical levels of fulfillment center efficiency by 2024," said Ju. —CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.