Credit Suisse has raised its target price for shares of telecoms firm Vodafone from 170p to 180p and reiterated its 'outperform' rating for the stock.

The move comes after the broker upped its earnings per share (EPS) forecasts by around 5.0% to 16.0p for the year ending March 2014.

Credit Suisse said that the increase in forecasts is partly to reflect foreign exchange changes, but it also upgrades on an underlying basis, driven by: faster Verizon Wireless (VZW) growth in the fourth quarter and higher-than-expected margins boosted by ShareEverything plans; margin potential at Vodafone India ("following less competition in the market") and; growing margins in Vodacom International.

"As a result, we are slightly ahead of consensus for Vodafone prospective EPS for the first time in a while," said analyst Justin Funnell.

He said that the investment case at Vodafone remains intact with VZW still standing out (which accounts for 55% of earnings).

"In absolute terms, getting a lot more performance near term requires realising the value of the VZW stake. We continue to see this as a potential scenario for 2013," Funnell said.

"However, with the share price already almost 20p up from its December lows, the hope for such a deal is partially priced in. Absolute risk/reward is less attractive the closer we get to our 193p break-up [sum of the parts]."

Shares were down 0.68% at 172.46p by 10:04 on Tuesday.

BC

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