Calls
Source: S&P Capital IQ transcripts via Xpressfeed · latest indexed call 2026-05-05 · generated 2026-07-29.
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 an "ahead of expectations" quarter wrapped around a soft spot: insights revenue, EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow all beat, adjusted EPS was $3.32 (up 11%) and free cash flow rose 29%, and Gartner raised full-year EBITDA, EPS and FCF guidance to at or above $1.545 billion, $13.25 and $1.16 billion. But contract value grew only 1% year-over-year (3.5% ex-U.S. federal), and management flagged that after a strong January and February, client decisions "slowed somewhat in March" on the geopolitical environment. Capital return stayed front and center — $535 million of buybacks cut the share count ~4% — and both Hall and Safian anchored the story on delivering adjusted EPS growth above 12% on a compound basis over three years (2025 base).
The Q&A reality was more probing. Analysts pressed repeatedly on why CV sits so far below Gartner's historical high-single/low-double-digit range and when it re-accelerates; management pointed to the ~250 bps U.S. federal headwind (which laps from Q2) and reiterated that CV will "accelerate over the course of 2026" while declining to guide it. Hall said many deals that slipped in March closed in April, framing the weakness as longer cycles rather than lost demand. On pricing, management firmly rejected intra-quarter speculation that sellers were discounting below the ~$50,000 ASP — "we do not offer discounts." Consulting and contract optimization were softer, which management tied to the same deferral behavior rather than anything structural.
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 April recovery | Asked whether March-delayed deals are converting in April; Hall said many are closing and the new-business softness was broad-based across both new logos and existing clients. |
| Faiza Alwy | Deutsche Bank | Regional slowdown and pricing | Slowdown was worst in directly-impacted areas such as airlines/transportation and the Gulf Cooperation Council; Hall said pricing is unchanged and clients view it as appropriate. |
| Andrew Nicholas | William Blair | U.S. federal headwind and sales-headcount mix | Federal was a 250 bps CV headwind that laps starting Q2; Safian said 2026 hiring skews toward business developers over account managers. |
| Keen Fai Tong | Goldman Sachs | Why CV is below historical levels | Safian named U.S. federal as the dominant headwind and reiterated expected CV acceleration but would not guide a specific exit rate. |
| Joshua Chan | UBS | Drivers of the >12% EPS CAGR | Pressed on how the CAGR works with sub-target revenue growth; Safian pointed to margin expansion and buybacks (roughly $2.4-2.5 billion repurchased over the last 12 months). |
| Jasper Bibb | Truist Securities | Discounting speculation | Asked about intra-quarter talk of below-ASP offers on new licensed users; Safian flatly denied any change in discounting posture or philosophy. |
Theme tracker
Themes are curator-classified across supplied calls.
| Theme | Status | Quarters mentioned | Read-through |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI as demand tailwind and substitution risk | persisted | Q2 2023, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Consistently framed as Gartner's top demand topic and the engine behind AskGartner; management tracks AI-as-substitute losses at the deal level and repeatedly calls them essentially unmeasurable. |
| U.S. federal / DOGE headwind | emerged | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Absent before 2025, it became the single largest drag at roughly a 250 bps CV headwind; the base was rebuilt to about $114-126 million and management expects it to lap from Q2 2026. |
| Tariffs, cost-cutting and longer sales cycles | persisted | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Escalation of routine buying decisions to the CFO/CEO and stretched sales cycles recurred all year; by Q1 2026 tariffs had 'stabilized' and 'geopolitical' became the new headline factor. |
| BTI transformation and AskGartner | emerged | Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | AskGartner rolled out to all licensed users through 2025; the four-dimension transformation (impact, volume, timeliness, user experience) is management's central self-help lever for re-accelerating engagement, retention and CV. |
| Tech vendor mix - software/services vs hardware | persisted | Q2 2023, Q1 2025, Q3 2025, Q1 2026 | Software and services grew high-single to low-double digits while hardware, semis and telecom lagged; the split recurred every quarter and small tech vendor churn kept enterprise counts under pressure. |
| Buybacks and share-count reduction | persisted | Q2 2023, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | Repurchase pace stepped up sharply in 2025 (about $2 billion, aided by an inaugural investment-grade bond) and is now the primary lever behind the >12% EPS CAGR pledge. |
| Double-digit CV growth pledge | persisted | Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026 | The 12%-16% medium-term target stayed on the table, but the dated 'clear path back to double-digit growth' language of mid-2025 softened to 'CV will accelerate' as growth stalled near 1%. |
Guidance ledger
Quotes, calls, and speakers are source-verified; outcomes are curator-classified.
| Verbatim guidance | Call | Speaker | Curator outcome | Outcome note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “We expect 2025 adjusted EPS of at least $11.70, up about $0.25 from last quarter.” | Gartner, Inc., Q1 2025 Earnings Call, May 06, 2025 · 2025-05-06T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | kept | FY2025 adjusted EPS finished at $13.17, well above this floor as guidance was raised through the year. |
| “All these factors would get us to at least high single-digit growth in 2026, well on our way back to double-digit growth in 2027 and beyond.” | Gartner, Inc., Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Aug 05, 2025 · 2025-08-05T12:00:00 | Craig Safian | pending | Q1 2026 CV grew just 1% (3.5% ex-U.S. federal), a wide gap to the high-single-digit full-year target with three quarters left. |
| “We expect 2025 adjusted EPS of at least $12.65, an increase from last quarter.” | Gartner, Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Nov 04, 2025 · 2025-11-04T13:00:00 | Craig Safian | kept | FY2025 adjusted EPS came in at $13.17, above this floor. |
| “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 | Raised one quarter later to at or above $13.25 on the Q1 2026 call, reflecting higher EBITDA and a lower share count. |
| “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 guided in Q4 2025; primarily reflects the higher EBITDA outlook and a lower share count. |
| “we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound annual basis above 12% over the next 3 years” | Gartner, Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, May 05, 2026 · 2026-05-05T12:00:00 | Eugene Hall | pending | Off a 2025 base (confirmed later in the call); management leans on margin expansion and buybacks given CV growth near 1%. |
Q&A pressure map
Question counts and firms are curator tallies; analyst coverage shown above.
| Topic | Questions | Firms | Pressure / response |
|---|---|---|---|
| CV re-acceleration - timing, pacing and drivers | 5 | Jefferies, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Truist Securities | The single most-pressed topic on the Q1 2026 call and on every recent call; management declined to guide CV and repeated only that it will accelerate over the course of 2026. |
| Selling environment and the March decision slowdown | 3 | Robert W. Baird & Co., Deutsche Bank, UBS | Analysts probed whether the March weakness was macro or structural; management said deals slipped rather than were lost and many closed in April. |
| Pricing and discounting | 2 | Deutsche Bank, Truist Securities | Pressed on intra-quarter speculation of below-ASP offers; management addressed it directly and denied any change, saying it does not offer discounts. |
| U.S. federal / DOGE headwind and its lapping | 1 | William Blair | A recurring pressure point every quarter since early 2025; on the latest call management reiterated the ~250 bps drag lapses from Q2 2026 with the base rebuilt near $114 million. |
Language shifts
Only language evidence verified against the referenced component is shown.
| Observation | Verbatim evidence | Call ID | Component |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tone on the macro hardened from early-2025 'resilient in a complex environment' to describing a structurally tougher backdrop assumed to persist. | “This makes for a much tougher selling environment.” | 1978890155 | 1 |
| A notably more permanent framing of disruption than the 'return to normal' language used earlier in 2025. | “we should assume that the world is going to be like this forever, that there's going to be a lot more disruption and chaos” | 1978890155 | 16 |
| The confident 'clear path back to double-digit growth' refrain of mid-2025 gave way by Q1 2026 to a more buyback-anchored EPS-CAGR pledge as CV growth stalled near 1%. | “we're making adaptations that give us a clear path back to double-digit growth” | 1954175581 | 1 |
| 'Geopolitical' replaced 'tariffs' and 'DOGE' as the headline external factor cited for the latest slowdown. | “Due to changes in the geopolitical environment, client decisions slowed somewhat in March.” | 1996258445 | 1 |
The call history traces a steady deceleration - CV growth sliding from high-single digits in 2023 to about 1% by Q1 2026 - met by a consistent management response: reframe the macro as permanent, lean on the BTI/AskGartner transformation and heavy buybacks, and shift the headline promise from double-digit CV growth to a buyback-aided >12% EPS CAGR. The open debate is whether the pledged CV re-acceleration is a matter of timing (federal lapping, transformation maturing) or a more durable ceiling on the seat-based model; so far the calls show more evidence of resilient retention and rising engagement than of the inflection itself.