Analysts publish multiple bullish stock ratings- but which are the stocks that really stand out from the crowd? Here we delve into the favorite stocks of five-star analysts. TipRanks tracks and ranks over 4,800 analysts. This allows us to focus on the ratings of analysts who tend to get it right. As you will see below, all the analysts referred to are generating highly impressive success rates and average returns. So when they make an extremely positive recommendation, it makes sense to pay attention. Bear in mind all of these Top Pick ratings were published in September/October. Let’s delve in now:

Microsoft (MSFT)- Timothy Horan

For Top 25 analyst Timothy Horan (Track Record & Ratings), Microsoft is the stock to watch in the cloud and communications industry. He writes “We continue to prefer cloud services companies, with enterprise exposure as economic growth is accelerating. MSFT remains our top large-cap pick.” This comes with a price target of $127 (13% upside potential).

So why is MSFT specifically set to outperform? Horan lists three key reasons:

If we take a step back, we can see that top analysts share Horan’s bullish sentiment. The stock boasts a ‘Strong Buy’ consensus from best-performing analysts. The average price target from these analysts currently stands at $122. See what other Top Analysts are saying about MSFT.

Boston Scientific (BSX)- Jayson Bedford

Top Raymond James analyst Jayson Bedford (Track Record & Ratings) is betting on the fortunes of medical device giant Boston Scientific.  Note that Bedford is ranked #34 out of 4,882 analysts tracked by TipRanks.