Full Report
The numbers behind Gartner, Inc.: as-reported financial statements and company metrics for FY2021–FY2025, traced to the source filings, opened with the share-price history those statements have to justify. Every linked figure opens the exact page of the filing it was printed on, with the statement row highlighted. Amounts in US$ thousands unless noted.
Reading notes: All figures are in thousands of U.S. dollars, as printed on Gartner's consolidated statements ('in thousands, except per-share data'); per-share values are in dollars. Revenue by segment uses Gartner's current reported cut. Beginning with the FY2025 Form 10-K, Gartner renamed its 'Research' revenue line 'Insights' and separately broke out 'Other' (a legacy/lower-margin content line). FY2023 and FY2024 were restated into Insights/Other in the FY2025 10-K, but FY2021 and FY2022 were originally reported as a single 'Research' line ($4,101,392 and $4,604,791 thousand) and are shown here with Insights and Other not separately disclosed (null). Core-statement columns: FY2025/FY2024/FY2023 income cash-flow figures are from the FY2025 10-K; FY2022/FY2021 from the FY2023 10-K (comparative columns). Balance sheet: FY2025/FY2024 from the FY2025 10-K, FY2023/FY2022 from the FY2023 10-K, FY2021 from the FY2022 10-K. FY2016–FY2020 long-term-record figures are from the standardized SEC XBRL data feed and are shown without page links.
Share Price — Full Available History — 33 Years
The stock closed at $140.19 on Jul 17, 2026 — up 34,743% over the window shown (+19.6% a year), trading between $0.39 and $551.80. At that close the stock trades at 15× FY2025 diluted EPS as reported below.
Source: market price feed, monthly closes, sampled from 8,246 source observations, Oct 1993–Jul 2026. Price return only, excludes dividends. Prices are split-adjusted (1:2 on Aug 29, 1994; 1:2 on Jun 29, 1995; 1:2 on Apr 01, 1996).
Market capitalization $11.8bn and enterprise value $13.0bn.
Market cap = 83.8M shares outstanding × the Jul 17, 2026 close of $140.19. Enterprise value adds total debt of $3.0bn and subtracts cash and equivalents of $1.7bn (net debt of $1.3bn), from the FY2025 balance sheet. Market-derived figures, shown without filing links.
FY2025 at a Glance
Revenue (US$ thousands)
Operating income (US$ thousands)
Net income (US$ thousands)
Diluted EPS
Source: FY2025 consolidated statements [1] [2]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Revenue by Segment
| Revenue by Segment | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insights | — | — | 4,516,035 | 4,829,051 | 5,072,570 |
| Conferences | 214,449 | 389,273 | 505,164 | 583,224 | 644,743 |
| Consulting | 418,121 | 481,782 | 514,746 | 558,537 | 552,499 |
| Other | — | — | 371,011 | 296,599 | 227,414 |
| Total revenues | 4,733,962 | 5,475,846 | 5,906,956 | 6,267,411 | 6,497,226 |
| Total revenues growth, derived | — | +15.7% | +7.9% | +6.1% | +3.7% |
Source: Consolidated Statements of Operations — revenue by reportable segment (Insights, Conferences, Consulting, Other) [1] [2]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Income Statement
Source: Consolidated Statements of Operations [1] [2]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Columns marked E are consensus analyst estimates from S&P Capital IQ (CapIQ), shown alongside reported results for direct comparison; they are not company guidance.
Estimate source: S&P Capital IQ (CapIQ) consensus, as of 2026-07-26. Estimate figures are S&P Capital IQ consensus (vendor data — no filing page links). EPS and net income use the normalized (adjusted) consensus where the street reports it. Line-item analyst models (segments, drivers, KPIs) are in the Visible Alpha tab.
Balance Sheet
Source: Consolidated Balance Sheets [3] [4] [5]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Cash Flow
Source: Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows [6] [7]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Long-Term Record
| Fiscal year | Total revenue | Operating income | Net income | Diluted earnings per share | Cash provided by operating activities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2016 | 2,444,540 | 305,141 | 193,582 | 2.31 | 365,632 |
| FY2017 | 3,311,494 | (6,329) | 3,279 | 0.04 | 254,517 |
| FY2018 | 3,975,454 | 259,715 | 122,456 | 1.33 | 471,158 |
| FY2019 | 4,245,321 | 370,087 | 233,290 | 2.56 | 565,436 |
| FY2020 | 4,099,403 | 490,150 | 266,745 | 2.96 | 903,278 |
| FY2021 | 4,733,962 | 915,751 | 793,560 | 9.21 | 1,312,470 |
| FY2022 | 5,475,846 | 1,100,106 | 807,799 | 9.96 | 1,101,422 |
| FY2023 | 5,906,956 | 1,236,894 | 882,466 | 11.08 | 1,155,737 |
| FY2024 | 6,267,411 | 1,156,287 | 1,253,715 | 16.00 | 1,484,922 |
| FY2025 | 6,497,226 | 1,025,711 | 729,231 | 9.65 | 1,290,365 |
Source: consolidated statements across filings; older years from the standardized feed [6] [1] [7] [2]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Operating KPIs
| KPI | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insights total contract value | — | — | — | 5,114,000 | 5,155,000 |
| Number of destination conferences | — | — | — | 51 | 53 |
| Destination conference attendees | — | — | — | 86,625 | 83,727 |
| Consulting backlog | — | — | — | 187,200 | 173,700 |
Source: company-reported operating metrics [8] [9]. Click any linked figure to open the filing page with the row highlighted.
Analyst Consensus
Mean target
Median target
High target
Low target
Street ratings: 3 strong buy, 1 buy, 9 hold, 1 sell, 1 strong sell. Consensus: Hold.
Estimate source: S&P Capital IQ (CapIQ) consensus, as of 2026-07-26. Estimate figures are S&P Capital IQ consensus (vendor data — no filing page links). EPS and net income use the normalized (adjusted) consensus where the street reports it. Line-item analyst models (segments, drivers, KPIs) are in the Visible Alpha tab.
Traceability
269 of 295 figures on this page (91%) link to the filing page where they are printed — click a linked figure to open the source PDF at that page with the row highlighted. Unlinked figures come from standardized data feeds or pre-filing years.
All figures are in thousands of U.S. dollars, as printed on Gartner's consolidated statements ('in thousands, except per-share data'); per-share values are in dollars.
Revenue by segment uses Gartner's current reported cut. Beginning with the FY2025 Form 10-K, Gartner renamed its 'Research' revenue line 'Insights' and separately broke out 'Other' (a legacy/lower-margin content line). FY2023 and FY2024 were restated into Insights/Other in the FY2025 10-K, but FY2021 and FY2022 were originally reported as a single 'Research' line ($4,101,392 and $4,604,791 thousand) and are shown here with Insights and Other not separately disclosed (null).
Core-statement columns: FY2025/FY2024/FY2023 income cash-flow figures are from the FY2025 10-K; FY2022/FY2021 from the FY2023 10-K (comparative columns). Balance sheet: FY2025/FY2024 from the FY2025 10-K, FY2023/FY2022 from the FY2023 10-K, FY2021 from the FY2022 10-K.
FY2016–FY2020 long-term-record figures are from the standardized SEC XBRL data feed and are shown without page links.
Insights contract value is stated on a foreign-exchange-neutral basis (recomputed at current-year FX rates each filing), so a prior year's value can differ across filings; values shown are per the FY2025 10-K.
FY2024 current portion of long-term debt was reported as nil ('—').
Quarterly cash-flow single quarters are derived from the printed year-to-date statements; see the statement note.
Gartner, Inc.'s management explains the business in its own materials. The slides below do the most of that work, pulled from the documents preserved in Sources. Each source link opens the complete presentation at that slide in a new tab.
First Quarter 2026 Results — Q1 2026
Latest earnings supplement; the fullest current teaching set — what Gartner does, the three segments and their unit economics, and capital allocation. · Open the full document →
Fourth Quarter 2025 Results — FY 2025
The full-year 2025 companion: annual results as the headline plus the longest trend view in the corpus (eight quarters and two full years). · Open the full document →
More from management
Fourth Quarter 2024 Results — FY 2024 · 28 pages · The prior-year annual snapshot — the baseline the 2025 numbers are measured against. · Open →
Fourth Quarter 2023 Results — FY 2023 · 28 pages · The full-year 2023 results, for readers tracing the multi-year trend two years back. · Open →
Gartner, Inc.'s management answers for the business every quarter. These are the exchanges that explain it best — verbatim, from the call transcripts preserved in Sources. Each link opens the full transcript at that page in a new tab.
Q1 2026 Earnings Call — Q1 2026
The current state of the thesis: CV re-accelerating off a federal-driven trough, the AI-substitution question head-on, and buybacks as the EPS engine. · Open the full transcript →
The unit economics in one span: CV $5.3B (+3.5% ex-Fed), GTS wallet retention 97%/99% ex-Fed, and ~$1.2B of deployable cash.
Craig Safian (CFO): Adjusted EPS was $3.32, up 11% from Q1 of last year. And free cash flow was $371 million, up 29% year-over-year. […] Contract value was $5.3 billion at the end of the first quarter, up 1% versus the prior year and an acceleration from year-end. Excluding the U.S. federal government, CV growth was 3.5%. […] Wallet retention for GTS was 97% for the quarter. Ex Fed, wallet retention was 99%. […] This includes about $500 million for running the business and around $1.2 billion available to deploy on behalf of shareholders.
p. 3 · Read in context →
Settles what powers the 12% EPS CAGR while revenue lags: buybacks are the biggest single lever ($2.4-2.5B in 12 months).
Joshua Chan (UBS); Craig Safian (CFO): And then maybe on your EPS CAGR outlook, can you talk about the drivers behind that 12%? I mean, obviously, revenue growth, at least currently is not probably at that level, so you're going to need some margins or buybacks. […] We're committed to driving margin expansion over time as well. On top of that, we have significant capital to deploy for buybacks. Over the last 12 months, we've bought back roughly $2.4 to $2.5 billion of stock, reducing the share count significantly.
p. 9 · Read in context →
The hardest question — why CV growth sits below the historic double digits; Safian isolates U.S. federal as a 250bp drag.
Keen Fai Tong (Goldman Sachs); Craig Safian (CFO): Can you provide more details on the reason why CV growth is coming below historical levels in the high single, low double-digit range? […] the first obvious headwind is the U.S. federal business, which was a 250-basis-point headwind in the quarter. We believe that business is rebaselined and expect it to be flat in 2026 and grow from there. That has been the dominant headwind.
p. 10 · Read in context →
Q4 and Full-Year 2025 Earnings Call — Q4 / FY2025
The annual framing call: the subscription model spelled out, why guidance is deliberately conservative, and the answer to years of medium-term misses. · Open the full transcript →
How the model works: paid-upfront subscriptions with strong retention produce free cash flow well above net income.
Craig Safian (CFO): The Insight segment is our largest, most important business. It's subscription-based with strong retention, recurring revenue, and excellent contribution margins. We get paid upfront, which allows us to generate strong free cash flow well in excess of net income. […] Contract value was $5.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, up 1% versus the prior year. Outside the U.S. federal government, CV growth was about 330 basis points faster at around 4%.
p. 3 · Read in context →
The conservatism tell: 2026 EPS assumes only dilution-offsetting buybacks — more shares and less cash than they will likely have.
Craig Safian (CFO): Notably, however, our share count for 2026 only assumes repurchases to offset dilution, meaning in the adjusted EPS guidance, we effectively assume both less cash on the balance sheet and more shares outstanding than we are likely to have. We expect 2026 adjusted EPS of $12.30 or more.
p. 6 · Read in context →
The hardest question: after repeated medium-term misses, why believe the guidance? Hall bets on a multi-year transformation payoff.
Surinder Thind (Jefferies); Eugene Hall (CEO): Given the pace of change, what gives you confidence that you can achieve medium-term guidance? […] As I mentioned earlier, we take the view that the world is always going to be more challenging than it was prior to a couple of years ago. […] But I have confidence that our CV will continue to accelerate over that time period due to the changes we’re making.
p. 10 · Read in context →
Margin philosophy settled: 23.5% is the new baseline, not a temporary dip, with expansion resuming as faster CV growth flows through.
Sami (for George Tong, Goldman Sachs); Craig Safian (CFO): Or do you view the decline as temporary, and margins should return to that 25% level fairly quickly? […] yes, we do believe that 23.5% is the new baseline, and we should be able to expand our margins going forward.
p. 13 · Read in context →
Q3 2023 Earnings Call — Q3 2023
The thesis under test: tech-vendor demand rolled over and CV growth decelerated — management's diagnosis and its path back to normal. · Open the full transcript →
Splits the slowdown by channel — enterprise functions steady, tech-vendor clients hit — and dates the recovery at 12-18 months.
Gene Hall (CEO): GTS sales to leaders at technology vendors were affected by technology sector dynamics and tough year over year comparisons. We expect sales to technology vendors will return to normal growth rates over the next 12 months to 18 months. […] GBS contract value grew 14%.
p. 3 · Read in context →
Quantifies the divergence: tech-vendor CV low-single-digit (down from mid-teens) and wallet retention off 5 points from a near-record.
Craig Safian (CFO): CV from tech vendors grew low single-digits, compared to mid-teens growth in the third quarter of 2022. […] Wallet retention for GTS was 102% for the quarter, which compares to 107% in the prior year, when we saw a near record high for this metric.
p. 5 · Read in context →
The medium-term model stated cleanly: 12-16% research CV growth to double-digit revenue, buybacks and tuck-in M&A for capital.
Craig Safian (CFO): With 12% to 16% research CV growth, we will deliver double-digit revenue growth. […] And we will continue to deploy our capital on share repurchases, which will lower the share count over time and on strategic value enhancing tuck-in M&A.
p. 9 · Read in context →
The sharpest pushback: can Gartner win back tech-vendor sales without more investment? Hall blames a client pull-forward/over-hire cycle.
Heather Balsky (Bank of America); Gene Hall (CEO): do you think you can win back those sales with the sales force you have that’s the fair assumption. […] a lot of the business they had was pulled forward, their own sales as a result they kind of overhired and have been having some retrenchment, which has in impacted our business.
p. 10 · Read in context →
Ties re-acceleration to sales-force maturity: 2023 opened with 50%+ brand-new reps versus a normal 35-40%.
Toni Kaplan (Morgan Stanley); Craig Safian (CFO): effectively when we entered this year, we had the least tenured or least experienced salesforce that we’ve ever had. […] We were in the 50% plus range being brand new to Gartner.
p. 11 · Read in context →
Q2 2021 Earnings Call — Q2 2021
The foundational primer: how each segment makes money, the 74% research contribution margin, the growth algorithm, and buybacks as priority 1A/1B. · Open the full transcript →
The whole model in one paragraph: recurring revenue, strong contribution margins, FCF above net income returned via buybacks.
Gene Hall (CEO): We have a vast addressable market. We have an attractive recurring revenue business model with strong contribution margins. We expect to deliver modest EBITDA margin expansion going forward from a normalized 2021. We generate significant free cash flow in excess of net income, which will continue to deploy through share repurchases and strategic tuck-in acquisitions.
p. 5 · Read in context →
The research engine defined: 74% contribution margin (partly temporary), $3.8B CV, and what the NCVI metric captures.
Craig Safian (CFO): Second quarter research contribution margin was 74%, up about 170 basis points versus 2020. […] Total contract value grew 11% FX neutral year-over-year to $3.8 billion at June 30. […] Quarterly net contract value increased or NCVI was $114 million, significantly better than the pandemic lows in the second quarter of last year and a new record high for second quarter NCVI.
p. 6 · Read in context →
How the smaller segments monetize: Conferences $58M at 73% margin (still virtual), Consulting $106M as labor plus utilization.
Craig Safian (CFO): Conferences revenue for the second quarter was $58 million compared to no revenue in the year-ago quarter. […] Second quarter consulting revenues increased by 9% year-over-year to $106 million.
p. 7 · Read in context →
Capital allocation in action: >$1B repurchased year-to-date, a third authorization bump, and why a shrinking base lifts EPS and ROIC.
Craig Safian (CFO): Year-to-date, we've repurchased more than $1 billion in stock, including $685 million during the second quarter. […] As we continue to repurchase shares, we expect our capital base will shrink. This is accretive to earnings per share, and combined with growing profits also delivers increasing returns on invested capital over time.
p. 9 · Read in context →
The durable productivity levers named plainly: recruiting, training portals, tools and process design lift both sales forces.
George Tong (Goldman Sachs); Gene Hall (CEO): Can you elaborate on what drove the increase? […] the thing that drives our productivity in both sales forces is we've heard before, which is our recruiting capability, the training portals we have, the tools we have in the process design.
p. 16 · Read in context →
More calls
Q3 2025 Earnings Call — Q3 2025 · 12 pages · The quarter just before the featured full-year call — the setup for the CV re-acceleration story and the federal drag. · Open →
Q2 2025 Earnings Call — Q2 2025 · 13 pages · Mid-2025 read on demand and sales-force ramp as management pushed business-developer hiring. · Open →
Q1 2025 Earnings Call — Q1 2025 · 12 pages · Where the 2025 guidance framework and the AI-relevance debate were first laid out for the year. · Open →
Q4 and Full-Year 2024 Earnings Call — Q4 / FY2024 · 12 pages · The full-year 2024 framing call — the trough-and-recover narrative on CV growth and the reset margin outlook. · Open →
Q2 2023 Earnings Call — Q2 2023 · 18 pages · Where the tech-vendor slowdown first became the central story, ahead of the featured Q3 2023 call. · Open →
Q4 and Full-Year 2022 Earnings Call — Q4 / FY2022 · 19 pages · The peak-growth full-year framing before the 2023 deceleration — a baseline for what 'normal' Gartner growth looked like. · Open →
Q4 and Full-Year 2021 Earnings Call — Q4 / FY2021 · 20 pages · The post-COVID recovery year in full, including the return of in-person conferences and the reset margin baseline. · Open →
Gartner, Inc.'s annual reports contain management's most considered account of the business. These are the sections, passages and visual pages worth opening in the originals preserved in Sources.
Gartner, Inc. — FY2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) — FY2025
Management's fullest account of a subscription research franchise: the CV engine, three restated segments, and the AI/government headwinds now testing it. · Open the full document →
Item 1. Business — p. 4 · Read the full section →
Defines what Gartner sells and through which three segments — and records the 2025 rename of Research to Business and Technology Insights.
The three reportable segments, and the 2025 rename of Research to Insights.
Gartner delivers its products and services globally through three reportable segments – Business and Technology Insights, Conferences and Consulting, as described below. In the second quarter of 2025, we renamed our segment previously referred to as Research to Business and Technology Insights (or “Insights”) to reflect the nature of the value we provide to clients.
p. 4 · Read in context →
The subscription model: 2,400+ experts, 13,000 clients, and 77% of contracts multi-year.
Gartner delivers independent, objective insights to leaders across an enterprise through subscription services that include on-demand access to published content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of more than 2,400 business and technology experts located around the globe. […] We typically have a minimum contract period of twelve months for our insights subscription contracts and, at December 31, 2025, 77% of our contracts were multi-year.
p. 6 · Read in context →
Item 1A. Risk Factors — p. 12 · Read the full section →
The two risks specific to a research business: AI/LLMs substituting for its content, and appropriations-dependent government contracts (~$1.0B of revenue).
Roughly $1.0B of contracts sit with governments and can be cancelled for convenience.
We derive significant revenues from insights and consulting contracts with the United States government and its respective agencies, numerous state and local governments and their respective agencies, and foreign governments and their agencies. At December 31, 2025 and 2024, approximately $1.0 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, of our outstanding revenue contracts were attributable to government entities. […] Certain of these contracts may be terminated at any time by the government entity without cause or penalty (“termination for convenience”).
p. 22 · Read in context →
Item 7. MD&A — Recent Developments — p. 39 · Read the full section →
The two structural events of 2025: the federal-contract collapse (<half of prior CV retained) and the exit from Digital Markets.
Item 7. MD&A — Business Measurements — p. 41 · Read the full section →
The definitions that govern the story: Contract Value, and client and wallet retention — how management measures the subscription base.
Item 7. MD&A — Executive Summary of Operations and Financial Position — p. 42 · Read the full section →
Management's own one-page scorecard: revenue, segment mix, contract value, cash and buybacks for the year.
$6.5B revenue, $5.1B Insights, $5.2B contract value, and ~$2.0B of buybacks in 2025.
We had total revenues of $6.5 billion in 2025, an increase of 4% compared to 2024 on a reported basis and 3% excluding the foreign currency impact. […] Insights revenues increased to $5.1 billion in 2025, an increase of 5% compared to 2024 on a reported basis and 4% excluding the foreign currency impact. […] Contract value was $5.2 billion at December 31, 2025, an increase of 1% compared to December 31, 2024 on a foreign currency neutral basis. […] During 2025, we repurchased 7.0 million shares of the Company’s common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.0 billion.
p. 42 · Read in context →
Item 7. MD&A — Results of Operations: Reportable Segments — p. 51 · Read the full section →
The Insights segment table, where CV growth stalls to 1% and wallet retention drops sharply across GTS and GBS.
More annual reports
Gartner, Inc. — FY2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K) — FY2024 · 127 pages · Baseline before the 2025 reset: the segment is still called Research, and includes the $300M event-cancellation insurance gain. · Open →
Gartner, Inc. — FY2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K) — FY2023 · 128 pages · Shows the pre-rename Research/Conferences/Consulting structure and post-COVID conference recovery. · Open →
Gartner, Inc. — FY2022 Annual Report (Form 10-K) — FY2022 · 127 pages · First full year of normalized in-person conferences after the pandemic disruption. · Open →
Gartner, Inc. — FY2021 Annual Report (Form 10-K) — FY2021 · 135 pages · The pandemic-era edition, useful for seeing how conferences and contract value behaved through the shock. · Open →
Competitors describe Gartner, Inc.'s market in their own filings and calls. These verified passages and visual pages show where their strategies meet, using source documents preserved in Sources.
Forrester Research, Inc. (FORR)
Gartner's most direct competitor — the only other independent syndicated research-and-advisory firm at scale. Forrester names Gartner by name as a principal direct competitor, runs the identical three-segment model (research subscriptions, consulting, events) sold on an annualized “contract value,” and is fighting the same AI-disruption question with a rival AI product (Izola / AI Access). Its shrinking contract value and mid-70s retention are the mirror against which Gartner's growth reads.
Forrester's own 10-K: it books revenue in the same three buckets as Gartner — research (subscriptions), consulting and events — tracks a Gartner-style annualized “contract value” (here – 6% to $292.4m), and names Gartner as its principal direct competitor, now alongside Google and LLM-based free information.
We report our revenue from client contracts in three categories of revenue: (1) research, (2) consulting, and (3) events. We classify revenue from subscriptions to, and licenses of, our research products and services as research revenue. We classify revenue from our consulting projects and standalone advisory services as consulting revenue. We classify revenue from tickets to, and sponsorships of, events as events revenue.
Contract pricing for annual subscription-based products is principally a function of the number of licensed users at the client. Pricing of contracts is a fixed fee for the consulting project or shorter-term advisory service. We periodically review and increase the list prices for our products and services.
We track contract value as a significant business indicator. Contract value is defined as the value attributable to all of our recurring research-related contracts. Contract value is calculated as the annualized value of all contracts in effect at a specific point in time, without regard to how much revenue has already been recognized. Contract value decreased 6% to $292.4 million at December 31, 2025 from $311.9 million at December 31, 2024. […] Our principal direct competitors include other independent providers of research and advisory services, such as Gartner, as wel as marketing agencies, general business consulting firms, and survey-based general market research firms. In addition, our indirect competitors include the internal planning and marketing staffs of our current and prospective clients, as well as other information providers such as electronic and print publishing companies. We also face competition from free sources of information available on the Internet, such as Google and artificial intelligence services (including LLMs).
p. 8 · Read in context →
Forrester's CFO quantifies the pressure on the syndicated-research model Gartner also runs: a 7% contract-value decline, research revenue down 7% to $77.9m, client retention of 74% and wallet retention slipping to 85% — the softening-retention backdrop against which Gartner's own retention and CV growth can be read.
Christopher Finn, Chief Financial Officer: Q2 saw a 7% client value decline. This mirrors our first quarter performance. We anticipate improved performance in the second half to come from opportunities in the government space, along with demand driven by our groundbreaking research and expanded offerings in our Forrester Decisions product portfoli aimed at broadening the market reach for our products. Therefore, even with the continuing uncertainty in the market, we expect client value to improve to a low single-digit decline for the year. […] research revenue was $77.9 million, down from $83.7 million in 2024. This was a decrease of 7% compared to the second quarter of 2024, with revenue from our subscription research products down 3%. Excluding the impact of FeedbackNow, which we divested last year, research revenue declined by 5% year-over-year. Client retention of 74% was up 1 point from the prior quarter. However, wallet retention was down 1 point to 85%.
p. 3 · Read in context →
Informa plc (INF)
Informa collides with Gartner on two fronts. Through Informa TechTarget, Omdia, Canalys and Enterprise Strategy Group it sells specialist technology research and analyst coverage to enterprise tech buyers — and names Gartner, Forrester and IDC as the established rivals it competes against. Through Informa Markets/Connect/Festivals it runs the world's largest B2B live-events business, the direct counterpart to Gartner's Conferences franchise. (The FY2024 report is the US-listed Informa TechTarget 10-K; FY2025 is Informa PLC.)
Informa TechTarget's 10-K sizes the technology-and-B2B-marketing arena it competes in at ~$20bn a year and explicitly lists Gartner (with IDC, Forrester and Frost & Sullivan) as the “larger, established” specialist tech-research players it competes against on specificity of analysis and analyst coverage — Informa's stated view of where it collides with Gartner Research.
We sit at the intersection of technology and B2B Marketing, a large and growing market worth an estimated $20 billion annually. As this area has grown in scale, it has become even more competitive, with more companies targeting the marketing and sales budgets of technology companies with a range of products and services similar to ours. These companies can be categorized into (i) media companies, (ii) providers of specialist technology research and intelligence, (iii) demand generation and intent data providers, and (iv) marketing technology and software companies. […] Providers of specialist tech research include several larger, established players such as Gartner, IDC, Forrester, Frost and Sullivan, and others. We compete against these companies based on the specificity of our analysis, content creation capabilities, and analyst coverage against specific technology categories.
p. 17 · Read in context →
Informa describes its Intelligence & Advisory and Omdia/Canalys/Enterprise Strategy Group research as “expert analyst” advisory to the C-suite that helps clients “determine where to play… and how to compete and win” — the analyst-led decision-support proposition that overlaps Gartner's research franchise, framed in Informa's own words.
Intelligence & Advisory: Expert analyst, data-driven intelligence products and advisory services to product managers, corporate strategists and the C-suite, challenging market strategies and sharpening product roadmaps. These offerings help clients determine where to play, what products and services to offer, and how to compete and win. […] Specialist Technology Research: Through the Omdia brand, the specialist brands Canalys and Wards Intelligence and our Enterprise Strategy Group, we provide research and intelligence services to technology providers based on expert analysis and data-driven intelligence and reports.
p. 12 · Read in context →
Informa PLC's annual report claims the “leading position in B2B Live Events globally” — 800+ brands across 30+ market categories, targeting 7%+ growth in 2026 — the events-and-exhibitions scale that is the competitive counterweight to Gartner's Conferences/Symposium business.
Over the last 10+ years, Informa has built the leading position in B2B Live Events globally, including more than 800 specialist Brands serving 30+ growth market categories in all major geographic regions. […] In 2026, we are targeting 7%+ underlying revenue growth for the B2B Live Events Division.
p. 4 · Read in context →
Information Services Group, Inc. (ISG) (III)
A pure-play technology research and advisory firm whose ISG Provider Lens provider evaluations are a direct analog to Gartner's Magic Quadrant, and whose ISG Research subscriptions, benchmarking data and events overlap Gartner's Research and Conferences segments. ISG frames its research against “a traditional analyst firm,” sizes the enterprise-software and AI-services markets, and reports the recurring-research economics investors compare with Gartner's contract value.
ISG reports double-digit growth in its ISG Research business — led by ISG Provider Lens, its provider-evaluation research that is the direct analog to Gartner's Magic Quadrant — and sizes enterprise software spend at more than $1.4 trillion by 2030, the market its research and advisory both feed on.
Our ISG Research business delivered double-digit growth, led by our ISG Provider Lens® provider evaluation research and ISG Events. Client interest in AI-related content continues to rise, evidenced by our five sold-out AI Impact Summit events held across the globe in 2025. In addition, our third annual State of Enterprise AI Adoption study quickly became our most downloaded report ever. […] Software continues to be a significant spend category for enterprises, with global spending expected to double to more than $1.4 trillion by end of 2030, with AI as a catalyst. In 2025, our Software unit achieved double-digit growth, reflecting strong enterprise demand for insights and support in this area.
p. 49 · Read in context →
ISG positions its research explicitly against “what a traditional analyst firm might cover” — the closest it comes to naming Gartner — backing it with scale (180,000 service contracts tracked, 4,000+ providers evaluated a year) that enterprises tap when they “need to evaluate providers,” the vendor-evaluation use case Gartner's Magic Quadrant serves.
Our research not only incorporates what a traditional analyst firm might cover, but also actual feedback and perspectives from practitioners in the market who are helping some of the largest enterprise clients transform their business. […] ISG tracks over 180,000 unique technology service contracts and measures and writes about more than 4,000 service and software providers each year. This gives us valuable insights into pricing, capabilities and stability. When large enterprises need to evaluate providers, they reach out to ISG Research for a deep understanding of capabilities, pricing, breadth of coverage and past experience.
p. 13 · Read in context →
More peer documents
Q1_FY2026 — 8 pages · CEO Colony sizes the AI market and argues ~70% of future AI revenue will come from private (not public) models, and rebrands Izola as “Forrester AI” (Microsoft Teams-certified) — Forrester's market view and AI product roadmap versus Gartner. · Open →
FORR_annual_report_FY2024 — 102 pages · Page 23 key-metrics table gives the prior-year quantified snapshot — contract value $307.6m, client retention 73%, wallet retention 89%, 1,942 clients — the head-to-head data set against Gartner's retention and CV. · Open →
Q1_FY2026 — 7 pages · CEO Connors launches the ISG AI Index, states ISG “influences more than $200 billion of tech spend” a year, and reports $27bn of contract value flowing through ISG Tango — the market-data and benchmarking franchise adjacent to Gartner's spend advisory. · Open →
TRI_annual_report_FY2024 — 166 pages · Business-model comparable (different market): page 28 shows Thomson Reuters' recurring-subscription economics — 81% of revenue recurring, multi-year renewals, retention-dependent — the same “must-have expert content” playbook as Gartner's contract value, but serving legal/tax/corporate rather than IT. · Open →
SPGI_annual_report_FY2025 — 220 pages · Adjacent, not head-to-head: S&P Global Market Intelligence's competition section (p87) frames an “intensely competitive” market for data, research and software services — the same subscription-research economics as Gartner, but sold to trading/investment professionals rather than IT/enterprise leaders. · Open →
SPGI_annual_report_FY2024 — 206 pages · Page 8 describes Market Intelligence's subscription decision-support model — useful only as a business-model reference point; the buyer (trading and investment professionals) does not overlap Gartner's research budget. · Open →
Source: S&P Capital IQ consensus via Xpressfeed · Generated 2026-07-26.
Estimate momentum
Over six months the cuts run deeper: FY2028 revenue is down ~11% from 180 days ago while normalized EPS fell only ~7% and FY2027 EPS actually rose, with margins and buybacks cushioning a slower top line.
Currency: USD · Scale: money in millions, absolute · Point-in-time consensus; Δ90d is Now versus 90d.
| Metric | FY | 180d | 90d | 30d | Now | Δ90d |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS (normalized) | FY2027 | $14.76 | $14.72 | $15.32 | $15.31 | +4.0% |
| EPS (normalized) | FY2028 | $18.72 | $16.94 | $17.60 | $17.48 | +3.2% |
| Revenue | FY2027 | $7.14bn | $6.85bn | $6.72bn | $6.71bn | -2.1% |
| Revenue | FY2028 | $7.94bn | $7.25bn | $7.07bn | $7.06bn | -2.6% |
EPS has topped consensus every quarter on record, often by double digits
Revenue prints land within about a point of consensus in either direction, so the beats are a guidance and earnings-quality story rather than a demand surprise.
Current sequences by metric: Revenue: 1 consecutive miss; EPS (normalized): 8 consecutive beats.
Currency: USD · Scale: money in millions, absolute · Consensus is captured before each actual first became effective.
| Quarter | Metric | Consensus | Actual | Surprise | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 FY2026 | Revenue | $1.52bn | $1.51bn | -0.3% | Miss |
| Q1 FY2026 | EPS (normalized) | $2.92 | $3.32 | +13.6% | Beat |
| Q4 FY2025 | Revenue | $1.75bn | $1.75bn | +0.2% | Beat |
| Q4 FY2025 | EPS (normalized) | $3.51 | $3.94 | +12.2% | Beat |
| Q3 FY2025 | Revenue | $1.52bn | $1.52bn | +0.2% | Beat |
| Q3 FY2025 | EPS (normalized) | $2.43 | $2.76 | +13.7% | Beat |
| Q2 FY2025 | Revenue | $1.67bn | $1.69bn | +0.7% | Beat |
| Q2 FY2025 | EPS (normalized) | $3.31 | $3.53 | +6.8% | Beat |
| Q1 FY2025 | Revenue | $1.53bn | $1.53bn | -0.0% | Miss |
| Q1 FY2025 | EPS (normalized) | $2.72 | $2.98 | +9.7% | Beat |
| Q4 FY2024 | Revenue | $1.69bn | $1.72bn | +1.5% | Beat |
| Q4 FY2024 | EPS (normalized) | $3.26 | $5.45 | +67.2% | Beat |
| Q3 FY2024 | Revenue | $1.48bn | $1.48bn | +0.6% | Beat |
| Q3 FY2024 | EPS (normalized) | $2.37 | $2.50 | +5.6% | Beat |
| Q2 FY2024 | Revenue | $1.58bn | $1.60bn | +0.7% | Beat |
| Q2 FY2024 | EPS (normalized) | $3.03 | $3.22 | +6.4% | Beat |
Forward estimates
Currency: USD · Scale: money in millions, absolute · YoY uses the prior fiscal year from the feed; analyst count and range use the first displayed period.
| Metric | FY2025A | FY2026E | FY2027E | FY2028E | FY2029E | YoY | Analysts | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $6.49bn | $6.43bn | $6.71bn | $7.06bn | $7.12bn | — | 11 | $6.48bn / $6.51bn |
| EBITDA | $1.59bn | $1.57bn | $1.64bn | $1.74bn | $1.77bn | — | 9 | $1.58bn / $1.61bn |
| EPS (normalized) | $12.79 | $13.68 | $15.31 | $17.48 | $21.14 | — | 12 | $12.66 / $12.95 |
Analysts split on FY2028: normalized EPS spans $15.68 to $21.43
Ten estimates back the FY2028 EPS mean of ~$17.48 but disagree by roughly a third top-to-bottom; the revenue and EBITDA ranges are wide as well.
Currency: USD · Scale: money in millions, absolute · Spread/mean is absolute high-low divided by absolute mean.
| Metric | Period | Mean | Low–high | Spread/mean | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS (normalized) | FY2028E | $17.48 | $15.68–$21.43 | 32.9% | 10 |
| Revenue | FY2028E | $7.06bn | $6.74bn–$7.32bn | 8.2% | 10 |
| EBITDA | FY2028E | $1.74bn | $1.55bn–$1.84bn | 16.8% | 10 |
Street sits on its hands: nine of fourteen at hold, targets from $120 to $203
Currency: USD · Scale: money in millions, absolute · Analyst counts shown explicitly.
| Street view | Reading | Analysts |
|---|---|---|
| Recommendation mix | Buy 3, Outperform 1, Hold 9, Underperform 1, Sell 1 | 15 |
| Consensus score | 2.73 | 15 |
| Target price | mean $160.4; median $162.0; high $203.0; low $120.0 | 13 |
Outer-year coverage thins sharply: FY2029 rests on two analysts
Every FY2029 metric shown is a two-analyst mean, and FY2028 GAAP net income and GAAP EPS draw on only six. Weight the 2027 tape, where counts run 9 to 15, far more heavily.
Visible Alpha broker models via S&P Xpressfeed · 12 brokers · 360 line items · freshest revision 2026-07-23.
Broker models frame Gartner as a research-subscription franchise whose growth engine — contract value — is bending back up: median total contract value growth reaccelerates from about 1% in FY-2025 toward 6% by FY-2028, led by a sharp recovery in net new business. The subscription Insights segment ($5bn+) does the compounding, Conferences rebound, and Consulting lags. Where the disagreement lives is not the headline P&L but the pace of the net-contract-value recovery, especially in the larger GTS sales force.
Key drivers
Contract value is booked ahead of revenue, so brokers treat the NCVI reacceleration as the tell for the subscription line. GTS (the larger book) is where the swing is steepest — from a near-stalled FY-2025 back to triple-digit net adds.
| Line | FY-2025A | FY-2026E | FY-2027E | FY-2028E | YoY | Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total contract value | $5.21bn | $5.51bn | $5.81bn | $6.18bn | +5.8% | 10 |
| Contract value - GTS | $3.94bn | $4.17bn | $4.37bn | $4.63bn | +5.9% | 10 |
| Contract value - GBS | $1.27bn | $1.34bn | $1.43bn | $1.55bn | +5.4% | 10 |
| Net new (NCVI) | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| LTM Net contract value change(NCVI) | $58.90m | $183.16m | $305.20m | $369.78m | +211.0% | 10 |
| LTM Net contract value increase(NCVI) - GTS | $-14.52m | $112.14m | $195.04m | $246.75m | +872.5% | 10 |
| LTM Net contract value increase(NCVI) - GBS | $56.97m | $64.92m | $97.46m | $111.68m | +14.0% | 11 |
Subscription Insights does the compounding; Conferences rebound; Consulting is the laggard
The $5bn+ Insights research line carries growth every year. Conferences step up (+10% in FY-2026), while Consulting is modeled down double digits in FY-2026 before a muted recovery — the one segment brokers do not credit with growth.
| Line | FY-2025A | FY-2026E | FY-2027E | FY-2028E | YoY | Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Segments | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total revenue - Insights | $5.07bn | $5.20bn | $5.45bn | $5.77bn | +2.6% | 11 |
| Total revenue - Conferences | $632.10m | $697.22m | $744.44m | $800.27m | +10.3% | 11 |
| Total revenue - Consulting | $576.27m | $511.23m | $529.73m | $548.96m | -11.3% | 11 |
| Total | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total revenue | $6.49bn | $6.43bn | $6.72bn | $7.11bn | -1.0% | 12 |
Brokers split hardest on GTS net new business — the crux of the reacceleration call
| Line | Period | Median | Q1–Q3 | Min–max | Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LTM Net contract value increase(NCVI) - GTS | FY-2027E | $207.97m | $170.67m–$245.29m | $102.52m–$268.62m | 9 |
| LTM Net contract value increase(NCVI) - GBS | FY-2027E | $99.62m | $87.28m–$107.22m | $64.64m–$131.52m | 10 |
| LTM Net contract value change(NCVI) | FY-2027E | $313.04m | $280.20m–$344.15m | $180.04m–$400.14m | 8 |
| Free cash flow per share($) | FY-2028E | $22.93 | $20.36–$24.91 | $18.94–$26.88 | 9 |
Cash compounds faster than the P&L: FCF per share ~$15 to ~$23 while operating EBITDA sits near $1.6bn
Operating EBITDA is modeled broadly flat around $1.6bn near term before rising, so the compounding investors see comes through free cash flow per share, helped by buyback-driven share reduction.
| Line | FY-2025A | FY-2026E | FY-2027E | FY-2028E | YoY | Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margin | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| EBITDA - Operating | $1.59bn | $1.58bn | $1.65bn | $1.77bn | -0.8% | 12 |
| Cash | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Free cash flow | $1.16bn | $1.16bn | $1.23bn | $1.34bn | +0.0% | 12 |
| Free cash flow per share($) | $15.30 | $17.22 | $19.63 | $22.65 | +12.5% | 11 |
The KPI detail thins fast: retention is one-broker, and forward-year coverage drops off
Client-retention lines for GTS and GBS carry a single broker, and wallet-retention and productivity metrics only two to three; treat these as one analyst's view, not the street. Even the well-covered CV and NCVI lines lose brokers by FY-2028 (down to six or seven), so the outer year is thinner than the near years.
Headline P&L consensus, momentum and beat/miss live in the CapIQ tab.
Source: S&P Capital IQ transcripts via Xpressfeed · latest indexed call 2026-05-05 · generated 2026-07-26.
Latest call digest
Gartner, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00
Q1 2026 — reported May 5, 2026. The prepared remarks were upbeat: Q1 insights revenue, EBITDA, adjusted EPS ($3.32, +11%) and free cash flow (+29%) all beat, contract value growth of 1% accelerated from Q4, and management raised the full-year EBITDA, EPS and free-cash-flow guidance while buying back $535 million of stock (about a 4% share-count reduction). The Q&A reality was more guarded. Gene Hall disclosed that after a strong January and February, client decisions "slowed somewhat in March" on the geopolitical environment, worst in the GCC and transport/energy-heavy sectors, though many delayed deals closed in April. The recurring analyst push was on why CV growth (1% total, 3.5% ex-federal) sits so far below Gartner's historical high-single/low-double-digit range and how it re-accelerates from here; management leaned on the ~250 bps U.S. federal headwind lapping in Q2, engagement gains and the BTI transformation, but declined to guide CV and implied a back-half ramp. Management denied intra-quarter chatter that it had started discounting or cutting new-license ASPs, and reframed the multiyear story around a 12%+ adjusted-EPS compound target (2025 base), of which buybacks are the largest lever.
Participant coverage from the latest call.
| Group | Participants | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Management | David Cohen — Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Gartner, Inc.; Eugene Hall — CEO & Chairman, Gartner, Inc.; Craig Safian — Executive VP & CFO, Gartner, Inc.; Operator | 4 |
| Analysts | Jeffrey Meuler — Senior Research Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division; Faiza Alwy — Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division; Andrew Nicholas — Analyst, William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division; Jason Haas — Executive Director & Senior Equity Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division; Surinder Thind — Equity Analyst, Jefferies LLC, Research Division; Joshua Chan — Analyst, UBS Investment Bank, Research Division; Toni Kaplan — Senior Analyst, Morgan Stanley, Research Division; Keen Fai Tong — Research Analyst, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division; Jeffrey Silber — MD & Senior Equity Analyst, BMO Capital Markets Equity Research; Jasper Bibb — VP of Equity Research, Truist Securities, Inc., Research Division; Scott Wurtzel — Research Analyst, Wolfe Research, LLC; Ashish Sabadra — Analyst, RBC Capital Markets, Research Division; Wahid Amin — Former Research Analyst, BofA Securities, Research Division | 13 |
Curated latest-call exchanges; one row per analyst topic.
| Analyst | Firm | Topic | What changed in Q&A |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeffrey Meuler | Robert W. Baird & Co. | March slowdown and new-logo vs. in-base upsell mix | Asked whether deals that slipped in March were converting in April and how new-logo compared with upselling the base; management said many delayed deals closed in April and the March softness was broad-based across both. |
| Faiza Alwy | Deutsche Bank | Regional spread of the slowdown and pricing strategy | Pressed for geographic color (worse in GCC and airlines/transport than in the U.S. or financials) and whether the price point needs to change; management said pricing is appropriate, tiered by service level, and rarely the deciding factor. |
| Keen Fai Tong | Goldman Sachs | Why CV growth is below historical highs and the exit rate | Asked to decompose the shortfall versus the old high-single/low-double range and for the year-end CV rate; management attributed it to the federal headwind plus macro, said it does not guide CV, and pointed to acceleration across the year. |
| Jasper Bibb | Truist Securities | Discounting speculation | Asked directly about market chatter that sellers had offered below the normal ~$50,000 new-LU ASP; management said it does not offer discounts and its pricing posture is unchanged. |
| Joshua Chan | UBS | Composition of the 12% EPS CAGR | Noted revenue growth is not currently near 12% and asked what bridges the gap; management pointed to margin expansion and, most of all, buybacks (about $2.4–2.5 billion over the trailing year). |
| Toni Kaplan | Morgan Stanley | AI as a distribution channel and consulting risk | Asked whether Gartner would distribute proprietary data through large LLM providers and whether AI is structurally hurting labor-based consulting; management said its value is proactive human-plus-digital advisory and it sees no structural AI damage. |
Theme tracker
Themes are curator-classified across supplied calls.
| Theme | Status | Quarters mentioned | Read-through |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. federal government (DOGE) headwind | persisted | Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Flagged as a risk in Q4 2024, it became a real drag once DOGE actions hit in March 2025 and has been roughly a 250 bps CV headwind since. Management has rebaselined federal CV to about flat in 2026 (~$114M at March 31) and expects to lap the worst comparisons starting Q2 2026. |
| Tariff-affected industries and escalated/deferred decision-making | persisted | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Emerged as an acute driver in Q2 2025, with about 35%–40% of CV tagged tariff-affected and purchase decisions escalated to the CFO or CEO. It eased through late 2025 as tariffs stabilized, then resurfaced in Q1 2026 as a broader March geopolitical slowdown with the same longer-cycle, escalated-approval pattern. |
| AI demand and the AskGartner rollout | persisted | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | AI is described as the single highest-demand topic every quarter. AskGartner moved from pilot (Q2 2025) to full rollout by October 2025 to biweekly feature releases (now 25 languages, PowerPoint export) in Q1 2026, positioned as an engagement and retention driver rather than a separate charge. |
| AI as a substitute for Gartner | persisted | Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Analysts probe this most quarters. Management consistently says its tracked deal-level loss-reason data shows direct AI substitution is immaterial, and frames AI as a demand tailwind for its guidance on AI strategy, ROI and governance. |
| Business and Technology Insights transformation (impact, volume, timeliness, user experience) | emerged | Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Introduced as 'adaptations' in Q3 2025 and laid out comprehensively in Q4 2025 as a four-dimension transformation, which management calls the biggest change in its 21-year history. It is the main lever for engagement-led retention, with benefits expected to build over the next few years. |
| Explicit 'return to double-digit growth' timeline as the lead message | dropped | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025 | Through Q3 2025 the headline was a clear path back to double-digit CV growth by 2027. By Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 the lead metric became a 12%+ adjusted-EPS compound target and a general 'CV will accelerate,' with the 12%–16% CV objective retained but reserved for a 'normal operating environment.' |
| Accelerated share repurchases and balance-sheet releveraging | persisted | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Buybacks ramped from $163M in Q1 2025 to $1.1B in Q3 2025 (aided by an inaugural investment-grade bond), about $2B for full-year 2025 and $535M in Q1 2026, cutting share count about 4% in the quarter. It is now the primary driver of the EPS-CAGR target. |
Guidance ledger
Quotes, calls, and speakers are source-verified; outcomes are curator-classified.
| Verbatim guidance | Call | Speaker | Curator outcome | Outcome note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “We now expect full year EBITDA at or above $1.545 billion, up $30 million from our prior guidance.” | Gartner, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Full-year 2026 target; raised $30M from the prior Q4 2025 guide on Q1 outperformance and FX. Not yet resolvable. |
| “We expect 2026 adjusted EPS at or above $13.25” | Gartner, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Raised from the $12.30-or-more introduced with the initial 2026 guide in Q4 2025; reflects higher EBITDA and a lower share count. |
| “we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound basis above 12% over the next 3 years” | Gartner, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Multiyear commitment off a 2025 base; management identifies buybacks and margin expansion as the main levers, since revenue growth is not currently near 12%. |
| “We expect 2026 adjusted EPS of $12.30 or more.” | Gartner, Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 03, 2026 · 2026-02-03T13:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Initial 2026 guide; only one quarter later, in Q1 2026, it was raised to at or above $13.25. |
| “reaccelerate over the course of 2026 into the high single-digit growth rates” | Gartner, Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Nov 04, 2025 · 2025-11-04T13:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Referred to CV growth. Q1 2026 total CV grew only 1% (3.5% ex-federal), so a high-single-digit full-year 2026 outcome would require a steep back-half ramp; management has since stopped repeating the specific number. |
| “All these factors would get us to at least high single-digit growth in 2026” | Gartner, Inc., Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Aug 05, 2025 · 2025-08-05T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Bridge to a 2026 CV target built on federal, tariff, tech-vendor and self-help buckets. Q1 2026 started the year at 1% total CV growth, leaving the full-year target dependent on later quarters. |
| “We expect 2025 adjusted EPS of at least $12.65” | Gartner, Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Nov 04, 2025 · 2025-11-04T13:00:00 | Craig Safian | kept | Full-year 2025 adjusted EPS came in at $13.17, reported on the Q4 2025 call, above this floor. |
Q&A pressure map
Question counts and firms are curator tallies; analyst coverage shown above.
| Topic | Questions | Firms | Pressure / response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract value reacceleration, its drivers and the gap to historical growth | 6 | Wells Fargo, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, Truist Securities | The dominant line of questioning every quarter. In the Q1 2026 call analysts pressed on the exit rate, the disaggregated drivers and why growth sits below the old 12%–16% range; management declined to guide CV and pointed to a back-half ramp, U.S. federal lapping and engagement gains. |
| The March slowdown and the state of the selling environment | 3 | Robert W. Baird & Co., Deutsche Bank, UBS | Focused on whether March deals were closing in April and how year-over-year comparisons look with Liberation Day lapping; management said many delayed deals closed in April but expects longer decision cycles to persist. |
| AI as a distribution channel or substitute, and AskGartner | 3 | Robert W. Baird & Co., Morgan Stanley | Covered LLM distribution, AskGartner's evolution and whether AI structurally threatens consulting; management framed proactive advisory as the differentiated value and called direct AI substitution immaterial. |
| Pricing and discounting | 2 | Deutsche Bank, Truist Securities | Whether Gartner is rethinking price points or offered sub-$50,000 new-LU deals; management addressed both directly, saying its pricing and discounting posture is unchanged. |
| Sales headcount and quota-bearing headcount mix | 3 | William Blair, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets | The bias toward hiring business developers over account managers, the cadence of the ramp and how much headcount is needed to support the 12% EPS CAGR; management said hiring is aimed at 2027–2028 capacity. |
Language shifts
Only language evidence verified against the referenced component is shown.
| Observation | Verbatim evidence | Call ID | Component |
|---|---|---|---|
| The lead multiyear metric shifted. Through mid-2025 management framed the outlook around a CV growth timeline; by Q1 2026 it anchored the story on an EPS compounding target instead. | “we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound basis above 12% over the next 3 years” | 1996258445 | 2 |
| A more durable, less transitory framing of the macro backdrop entered the language in Q4 2025 — management now plans as if the tougher environment is permanent rather than a passing shock. | “we should assume that the world is going to be like this forever” | 1978890155 | 16 |
| New risk vocabulary about deferred and escalated decision-making, first used in 2025, became a standing description of the selling environment. | “Executives have responded to this by slowing and deferring everything possible.” | 1978890155 | 1 |
| In the latest call the caution narrowed to a specific, recent trigger — a March geopolitical slowdown — after several prior quarters of describing gradual improvement. | “Due to changes in the geopolitical environment, client decisions slowed somewhat in March.” | 1996258445 | 1 |
The call history reads as a multi-quarter deceleration: total CV growth has slid from 7%–8% in 2024 to 1% in each of the last two quarters, met with the largest internal transformation in Gartner's history and heavier buybacks. Management's conviction that CV re-accelerates is consistent and its retention economics are intact, but the debate now centers on proof: the promised 2026 reacceleration started at just 1% (3.5% ex-federal) in Q1, and the multiyear pitch has quietly re-anchored on a 12% EPS compound target that leans heavily on share-count reduction rather than on the top-line growth that has yet to return.