Back in 2020, tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) was embroiled in a scandal, of sorts, over issues of academic publication in the field of quantum computing. The journal, Science, was the setting for the issue in question, but a new development seeks to turn things around. That news, along with everything else Microsoft has seen today, sent shares surging up nearly 4.5% in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
Microsoft’s paper came under scrutiny at Science when concern was expressed over the results of the paper. But after five years of back-and-forth wrangling, Science is now poised to remove an “…editorial expression of concern,” and replace it with “…a correction that says researchers didn’t present a full description of how they tuned the relevant devices and didn’t present a full catalog of the data measured.” The paper in question covered Microsoft’s development of a “…topological superconductor capable of using Majorana particles for quantum computing.”
This comes as mixed news to former scientific director of the Microsoft Quantum Lab Charles Marcus, who currently serves as a professor of physics at the University of Washington. The change comes following a determination from the University of Copenhagen’s Committee for Responsible Research Practices that Marcus had “…not engaged in questionable research practices in this matter.” For this, Marcus was duly relieved, but also annoyed, saying, “But I want those four years back.”
Game Pass Surge
Meanwhile, even as concerns about Microsoft’s gaming future are starting to emerge, the numbers are saying that things are going wonderfully right now. In fact, new reports say that Xbox Game Pass revenue is approaching the $5 billion mark by itself. With around 40 new games in development, there is likely plenty of Game Pass fodder to come, though some wonder how far it can go. This is especially true in light of the fact that Xbox hardware revenue dropped 25% against this time last year.
There may be explanation for this, though. Xbox hardware is old right now. The first units came out in late 2020, so we should be about two years away from a full-on new console generation. And with Xbox increasingly working to connect its brand to PC—though no one is sure whether it is Xbox PC or Xbox on PC that Microsoft is going with—the next generation of Xbox hardware may not even be Xbox hardware at all.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 23.05% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $611.28 per share implies 13.89% upside potential.
