UPDATE: Credit Suisse Initiates Coverage on Box with Outperform Rating, $24 PT on Favorable Risk/Reward

In a report published Tuesday, Credit Suisse analyst Philip Winslow initiated coverage on

with an Outperform rating and $24.00 price target. In the report, Credit Suisse noted, "Box competes in a rapidly evolving, highly competitive market.1 In particular, if Microsoft (which we view as the most significant long-term competitor to Box) can effectively advance the front and back-end functionality of OneDrive for Business as well as further integrate the content creation, collaboration, and social capabilities of the Office and Azure ecosystems, Microsoft could gain meaningful market share and negatively influence per-seat pricing for incremental users at Box and other pure-play file sync and share and online content and collaboration vendors. However, we view Box as currently having a more appealing FSS product than Microsoft and believe the company has sufficient lead time to further improve its competitive position and expand its user base—mitigating some of the near- to medium-term competitive risk." Box closed on Friday at $20.18.