Key Stats for Gartner Stock
- 1 Month Price change for Gartner stock: -34%
- $IT Share Price as of Feb. 20: $154
- 52-Week High: $507
- $IT Stock Price Target: $190
Now Live: Discover how much upside your favorite stocks could have using TIKR’s new Valuation Model (It’s free)>>>
What Happened?
Gartner (IT) stock tumbled over 21% on February 3 after the research and advisory firm reported disappointing fourth-quarter results and issued weaker-than-expected guidance for 2026. The stock is now down 71% from all-time highs.
- The sell-off sent shares to their lowest level in 52 weeks.
- The company’s Q4 net income fell 39% year over year to $242 million, while earnings per share fell 34% to $3.36.
- Full-year results painted an even grimmer picture, with net income down 42% to $700 million and EPS declining 40% to $9.65.
- What really spooked investors was the deteriorating cash generation. Operating cash flow fell 13% to $1.3 billion, and free cash flow dropped 15% to $1.2 billion.
- These numbers raised concerns about the company’s ability to maintain its cash flow strength.
- The biggest disappointment came from Gartner’s 2026 revenue guidance. Management projected revenue of $6.455 billion or more, representing just 2% growth on an FX-neutral basis.
- This fell short of Wall Street’s expectations and signaled continued headwinds from several external challenges.
CEO Gene Hall pointed to a range of market pressures affecting the business. Federal government clients were hit by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives.
Companies exposed to tariffs faced ongoing uncertainty. State and local government and education clients dealt with funding changes. And tech companies not involved in AI struggled with a shifting landscape.
Hall acknowledged that executives are responding to this volatility by “slowing and deferring everything possible,” creating a much tougher selling environment.
The company faced increased scrutiny, higher deal approval requirements, and longer buying cycles throughout 2025.
See analysts’ growth forecasts and price targets for Gartner stock (It’s free!) >>>
What the Market Is Telling Us About Gartner Stock
The sharp decline in Gartner stock suggests investors are concerned about near-term growth prospects despite management’s transformation efforts.
While the company is making significant changes to its business and technology insights offerings, these improvements will take time to show up in financial results.
Management emphasized they’re transforming the business along four dimensions: impact, volume, timeliness, and user experience.
They introduced AskGartner, an AI-powered tool that helps clients find relevant insights more easily. Early results show that AskGartner users have substantially higher renewal rates.
The company also expects contract value growth to accelerate throughout 2026, though it started the year at just 1% growth in Q4 2025. Outside the U.S. federal government, contract value grew 4%, providing some optimism for recovery.
Despite the near-term challenges, Gartner maintained its medium-term growth targets. The company believes that as the business transformation takes hold over the next few years, growth rates will return to historical levels even in a challenging environment.
Analysts remain cautiously optimistic. The consensus rating is a “Hold” with a mean price target of $192.67, representing about 21% upside from current levels.
However, the wide range of analyst opinions reflects uncertainty about the timing of the turnaround.
For fiscal 2026, analysts expect EPS to grow just 1.5% to $13.37.
The company beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, suggesting it has a track record of managing expectations conservatively.
One bright spot: Gartner repurchased $2 billion of stock in 2025 and increased leverage through its first investment-grade bond offering. This demonstrates management’s confidence in the business’s long-term value despite near-term headwinds.
Investors should watch for signs of contract value acceleration, improvements in client engagement metrics, and stabilization in the federal government business as key indicators of whether the transformation is working.
Estimate a company’s fair value instantly (Free with TIKR) >>>
How Much Upside Does IT Stock Have From Here?
With TIKR’s new Valuation Model tool, you can estimate a stock’s potential share price in under a minute.
All it takes is three simple inputs:
- Revenue Growth
- Operating Margins
- Exit P/E Multiple
If you’re not sure what to enter, TIKR automatically fills in each input using analysts’ consensus estimates, giving you a quick, reliable starting point.
From there, TIKR calculates the potential share price and total returns under Bull, Base, and Bear scenarios so you can quickly see whether a stock looks undervalued or overvalued.
See a stock’s true value in under 60 seconds (Free with TIKR) >>>
Looking for New Opportunities?
- See what stocks billionaire investors are buying so you can follow the smart money.
- Analyze stocks in as little as 5 minutes with TIKR’s all-in-one, easy-to-use platform.
- The more rocks you overturn… the more opportunities you’ll uncover. Search 100K+ global stocks, global top investor holdings, and more with TIKR.
Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
