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Flat Quarter for Gartner
Gartner has announced revenue of $1.524bn for the third quarter, an increase of 1.2% - exceedingly modest by its own high standards. Profit also stalled - adjusted EBITDA of $347m was up 1.9% as reported but down 0.8% on an FX neutral basis.
 During the quarter the firm repurchased 4.0 million common shares for $1.1 billion, and also completed the Beta launch of a new AI-powered tool for access to its insights, AskGartner.
Looking at the results by business segment, with growth figures adjusted to be FX neutral, the Insights division grew revenue 3.6% to $1.271bn, Conferences shrank 4.1% to $75m, and Consulting dropped 4.8% to $124m. The firm reclassified some of its business this quarter - it renamed 'Research' as 'Insights', and moved its Gartner Digital Markets business out of this category into a new one, 'Other' business, for which LFL revenue fell 22.6% to $55m.
By the standards of most other businesses, this was a solid quarter in a tough trading environment, but Gartner has generally bucked downturns and carried on growing fast, often in double figures. Even last quarter, which generally continued a slight decline seen over the previous year, all three divisions grew, with overall revenue up 4.6% and EBITDA 5%. Flat performance is new territory for the tech consulting giant.
Chairman and CEO Gene Hall (pictured) nevertheless says the results were 'ahead of expectations,' points to growth in contract value of 3%, and notes that adjusted EBITDA and margin guidance for the year have increased. He concludes: 'Seeing extraordinary value and a unique opportunity, we repurchased more than $1 billion of stock, a Gartner record for a single quarter.'
The group is online at www.gartner.com .
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