Gartner Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates, '26 EPS Outlook Raised

Revenues of $1.68 billion surpassed the consensus mark of $1.65 billion by 1.8%. Reported revenues declined 0.6% year over year because the prior-year period included revenues from the divested Digital Markets operation. Adjusted revenues increased 2.8% on a reported basis and 1.8% on a foreign-currency-neutral basis.

IT’s Contract Value Growth Accelerates

Global contract value reached $5.28 billion, increasing 1.7% year over year and 0.3% sequentially on a foreign-currency-neutral basis. The improvement from 1% year-over-year growth in the first quarter indicates that subscription demand is gradually stabilizing.

Global Technology Sales contract value was approximately $4 billion, rising 1.1% year over year and remaining nearly flat sequentially. Global Business Sales contract value increased 3.3% year over year and 1.2% sequentially to $1.28 billion.

Global wallet retention was 98.2%, up from 97.7% in the preceding quarter but below 101.3% a year earlier. Client retention improved sequentially to 85.2% from 85%, compared with 84.6% in the year-ago quarter. Contract value per enterprise advanced to $414,000 from $376,000 a year ago, partly offsetting a 4.5% decline in client enterprises to 12,775.

Gartner’s Q2 Segmental Performance

Insights revenues increased 2.1% year over year, or 1% on a foreign-currency-neutral basis, to $1.29 billion. Segment contribution rose 4% to $999 million. The contribution margin expanded 150 basis points to 77.5%, demonstrating the scalability of Gartner’s subscription-oriented research platform.

Conferences delivered the strongest revenue growth. Segment revenues advanced 15.5% year over year, or 14.2% on a foreign-currency-neutral basis, to $244 million. Contribution jumped 19.6% to $145 million, while the contribution margin expanded 210 basis points to 59.5%.

Same-conference revenues increased 12%, although attendee levels declined 1.4%. Gartner held 18 destination conferences during the quarter compared with 19 a year earlier, while destination conference attendance decreased slightly to 28,057 from 28,295.

Consulting remained the weakest segment. Revenues declined 8.8% year over year to $142 million, while contribution fell 12.6% to $54 million. The contribution margin contracted 170 basis points to 37.9%.

Labor-based consulting revenues decreased 12.8% to $96 million, whereas contract optimization revenues increased 0.9% to $46 million. Consulting backlog rose 9.1% to $214 million, offering some support for future revenues. Billable headcount fell 11.3% to 842, while utilization improved 32 basis points to 65.1%.

IT’s Profitability and Cash Flow Improve

Adjusted EBITDA excluding the divested operation increased 6.4% year over year, or 4.4% on a foreign-currency-neutral basis, to $466 million. The corresponding margin expanded 90 basis points to 27.8%.

GAAP operating income advanced 15.7% to $378.5 million. The operating margin improved to 22.6% from 19.4% a year earlier, aided by lower service, product-development and administrative expenses.

Net income increased 14.4% to $275.5 million. Earnings climbed 33.1% to $4.14 per share, with the faster per-share increase supported by a reduction in shares to 66.6 million from 77.4 million.

Operating cash flow rose 3.8% to $398 million. With capital expenditures declining to $20 million from $36 million, free cash flow increased 8.9% to $378 million. The trailing-12-month free cash flow was approximately $1.3 billion.

Gartner repurchased 3.6 million shares for $547 million during the quarter. Year-to-date repurchases totaled approximately $1.08 billion. The company had about $1.2 billion remaining under its repurchase authorization as of July 31 after the board approved an additional $500 million in July.

Gartner ended the quarter with $1.49 billion in cash and approximately $3 billion in debt. Gross debt to adjusted EBITDA was 1.8 times, while net leverage stood at 0.9 times.

Gartner’s 2026 Guidance

Gartner now expects 2026 adjusted revenues of at least $6.38 billion, compared with the previous outlook of $6.41 billion.

Insights revenues are now projected to be at least $5.17 billion, down from the prior guidance of $5.20 billion. The outlooks for Conferences and Consulting revenues were maintained at no less than $695 million and $510 million, respectively.

Despite the revenue adjustment, the company raised its profitability forecast. Adjusted EBITDA excluding the divested operation is now expected to be at least $1.57 billion, up from $1.55 billion. Adjusted EPS guidance for 2026 increased to a minimum of $14 from $13.25, while the free cash flow forecast rose to at least $1.19 billion from $1.16 billion.

Gartner carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Recent Earnings Snapshot

Waste Connections, Inc. WCN reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.50 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.35 by 11.1%. Earnings increased 16.3% from $1.29 in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues of $2.56 billion surpassed the consensus estimate of $2.53 billion by 1.1% and rose 6.4% year over year.

Equifax Inc. EFX reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.25 per share, up 12.5% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.21 by 1.8%.

Revenues increased 10.6% year over year to $1.7 billion and surpassed the consensus mark by a slight margin.

Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research