Nutanix, Inc. (NTNX) had a rough Tuesday, delivering the kind of earnings report that makes investors reach for the sell button. The cloud computing and hyperconverged infrastructure company posted worse-than-expected first-quarter results and then compounded the pain by cutting its full-year sales guidance below Wall Street's expectations.

The numbers tell the story: Nutanix reported revenue of $670.58 million, falling short of the $676.75 million analysts were expecting. The good news? Adjusted earnings per share hit 41 cents, right in line with estimates. But when you miss on the top line and slash your outlook, matching on earnings doesn't get you much credit.

CFO Rukmini Sivaraman tried to provide some context, noting that "we expect that the revenue over time remains unchanged. We expect this dynamic to continue and have factored it in our Q2 and updated full-year revenue guidance." Translation: there's a timing issue with revenue recognition, and management has now baked that reality into their forecasts.

The revised guidance didn't inspire confidence. For the second quarter, Nutanix expects revenue between $705 million and $740 million, well below the $749.09 million consensus. More concerning, the company lowered its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook to a range of $2.82 billion to $2.86 billion, compared to analyst expectations of $2.92 billion.

The market's reaction was swift and brutal. Nutanix shares plunged 15.5% to $49.69 on Wednesday, wiping out billions in market value.

Wall Street analysts quickly recalibrated their models, and the repricing was significant across the board:

• Needham analyst Mike Cikos maintained a Buy rating but slashed his price target from $80 to $65.
• B of A Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan kept his Buy rating while cutting the target from $93 to $75.
• Keybanc analyst Brandon Nispel stuck with an Overweight rating but dropped the price target from $95 to $65.
• Piper Sandler analyst James Fish reiterated an Overweight rating while reducing the target from $88 to $72.

What's notable here is that despite the significant price target cuts—ranging from 15% to 30%—every analyst maintained a bullish rating. That suggests Wall Street still believes in the long-term story, even if the near-term execution has hit a speed bump. Whether that optimism proves justified will depend on whether the revenue timing issues Sivaraman mentioned are truly temporary or signal something more troubling about the company's sales pipeline.