MORGAN STANLEY: These are the best stocks to own in 2018

Get the Full StoryREUTERS Brendan McDermidEvery year, Morgan Stanley analysts comb through their wealth of research to find the stocks they're most bullish on for the next year.

Last year's list posted a return of 11.38 —roughly 1 behind the S&P 500's total return for the same period.

The team just released their eighth annual "vintage value" list for next year based on the following criteria:

We focused on stocks rated Overweight by our analysts that also were favored by our US Equity Strategy Team's “BEST” model, which ranks stocks by expected market-relative performance on a 24-month horizon.

We then narrowed our focus to stocks with a favorable risk reward profile, paying close attention to the skew of the analysts’ Bull and Bear Case valuation estimates.

We then also considered the sector weighting recommendations of our US Equity Strategy team, led by Chief Strategist Michael Wilson.

Finally, we conferred with the analysts to confirm their conviction that each of these stocks is an attractive one-year buy-and-hold investment opportunity.

Here are the best stocks to own over the next 12 months, according to Morgan Stanley. Alexion Pharmaceuticals AXLN

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Current price: 126

Morgan Stanley price target: 141

Bank of America BAC

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Current price: 24

Morgan Stanley price target: 26

Cisco Systems C

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Current price: 31

Morgan Stanley price target: 39

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