Gartner, Inc. IT reported better-than-expected second-quarter 2026 results, with both earnings and revenues surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Adjusted earnings of $4.37 per share beat the consensus estimate of $3.77 by 15.9% and increased 23.8% from the year-ago quarter’s $3.53. The improvement reflected higher operating profit and a considerably lower diluted share count.
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.
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