Transcripts
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 →