Microsoft Aims to Unstick 'Laggard' Label

However, a less bullish Microsoft investor, Marc Klee, a portfolio manager with the John Hancock Technology Fund, believes that Xbox alone isn't enough to tide the company over until Longhorn.

With 61% of Microsoft's revenue coming from Windows and Office sales, Klee believes that only growth in those areas can really create meaningful top-line growth. "If they get more into the gaming area, it's just not going to move the needle," he said.

"I think they're really going to be a modest growth company until that [Longhorn] happens," Klee added. "From a product road map standpoint, there's really very little to give the top line kick."

That talk, increasingly common among tech investors, is what makes Microsoft bulls bristle.

"What you have is a company that is fundamentally undervalued because of concerns of growth potential, Linux and Xbox -- all of which are overblown," Di Bona said. The stock, he added, has fallen into "limbo land" between traditional growth investors and value investors.

"If you believe markets are rational, then people will come to the realization that while it's paying dividends, it's still growthy," Di Bona concluded.

That realization is contingent on whether investors can make a meal out of what Microsoft brings to the table.