Gartner’s Lost Year: How A Consulting Giant Ran Into A Wall In 2025

• Gartner stock – down 47% year-to-date – is heading for its worst annual performance in over two decades.
• Over the past year, enterprise customers pulled back spending on research and consultancy projects due to macroeconomic pressures.
• Gartner’s revenue growth has slowed over the last few quarters, and most analysts recommend holding the stock. 

Once seen as one of the steadier growth stories in the market, Gartner Inc. hit an abrupt roadblock this year.

Growth at the research and consultancy company slowed, and its stock is headed for its worst performance in over two decades (see chart). Shares are set to end about 47% lower for the year – the first annual decline in the past 18 years and the worst showing since 2000.
 

What Went Wrong?

The stock was already sliding sharply in the first quarter, before President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, announced in April, sent global markets into a tailspin. With higher costs from tariffs, corporations cut back their consulting budgets or became increasingly selective about outsourced work and projects.

Gartner earns the bulk of its revenue from clients — mainly large enterprises including Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies – through multi-year subscription contracts for advisory research, market reports, benchmarks, and other advisory services.

In August, the company trimmed its 2025 revenue and core profit view, leading to a staggering 27.6% drop in its stock price in a single day. It lowered the sales view from its mainstay “Insights” unit, previously known as “Research,” by $100 million.

“Measures of CEO confidence fell to recessionary levels, among the fastest drops ever recorded. And in a Gartner survey, 78% of CEOs indicated they're implementing cost-cutting measures to safeguard performance,” Gartner CEO Eugene Hall said in the company’s analyst call that month. 

“The largest headwind in Q2 was with the U.S. federal government,” he said, referring to the pullback in government spending. “Initiatives from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made it more challenging for clients to purchase or renew many of our products.”

Concerns Remain 

Later, in September, reports emerged of large-scale layoffs at the company’s Gurgaon, India office. Even though the company revised its forecast upwards in November, investors and analysts remain concerned about the shrinking revenue growth rate, with the stock trading primarily within a range since August. The company reported its lowest net profit in the last quarter since the third quarter of 2020.
 

On Stocktwits, the IT ticker has largely moved between ‘neutral’ and ‘bearish’ zones. Currently, eight of the 13 analysts covering the stock have a ‘Hold’ rating, with four rating it ‘Buy’ and one rating it ‘Sell,’ according to Koyfin. Their average price target of $28.73 implies an 11% upside from the stock's last close.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

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