A bearish note in an otherwise bullish industry research report led to a bit of an investor sell-off in GitLab (GTLB -4.99%) stock on Monday. The specialized tech company's shares took a nearly 5% hit as a result, on a day when the S&P 500 index basically traded sideways.

Sold on software

That report, published in the morning and authored by RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg, was an update of notable software stocks in advance of scheduled quarterly earnings reports from companies in the segment.

According to reports, Hedberg pointed out that such titles did quite well, on the back of quarterly reports that were published relatively early in the current earnings season. The fundamentals of more than a few of those companies topped analyst expectations and provided a refuge for investors spooked about the potential of American tariffs on a range of other industries and businesses.

Hedberg believes that the outperformance trend will continue, at least to some extent, with some reporting companies going as far as to increase their guidance.

Not every company is created equal, though, and Hedberg actually trimmed his expectations for a few. Among them was GitLab, which was one of a handful of companies in his coverage for which he cut his price target. (It wasn't immediately apparent by how much, however.)

Is this one a true outlier?

I would agree with Hedberg's assessment that software companies have done better in their most recent quarter than many expected them to. That said, the tariff story seems to be melting away, so to me this isn't much of a catalyst.

For GitLab specifically, the true story will be told when it releases its first quarter results; this hasn't been officially scheduled, but it should occur in the very near future.