IT

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Gartner (IT). Shares have added about 0.2% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Gartner due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at the latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent drivers for Gartner, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late. Gartner 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. 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. 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%. 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 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 at least $14 from $13.25, while the free cash flow forecast rose to at least $1.19 billion from $1.16 billion. In the past month, investors have witnessed a upward trend in fresh estimates. The consensus estimate has shifted 5.82% due to these changes. Currently, Gartner has a average Growth Score of C, though it is lagging a bit on the Momentum Score front with a D. However, the stock was allocated a score of A on the value side, putting it in the top 20% for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of A. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Estimates have been trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. It comes with little surprise Gartner has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). We expect an above average return from the stock in the next few months. Gartner belongs to the Zacks Consulting Services industry. Another stock from the same industry, Equifax (EFX), has gained 4.6% over the past month. More than a month has passed since the company reported results for the quarter ended June 2026. Equifax reported revenues of $1.7 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +10.6%. EPS of $2.25 for the same period compares with $2.00 a year ago. For the current quarter, Equifax is expected to post earnings of $2.21 per share, indicating a change of +8.3% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +0.1% over the last 30 days. The overall direction and magnitude of estimate revisions translate into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for Equifax. Also, the stock has a VGM Score of C. 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 Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Equifax, Inc. (EFX) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Wrapping up Q2 earnings, we look at the numbers and key takeaways for the it services & consulting stocks, including Gartner (NYSE:IT) and its peers. IT Services & Consulting companies stand to benefit from increasing enterprise demand for digital transformation, AI-driven automation, and cybersecurity resilience. Many enterprises can't attack these topics alone and need IT services and consulting on everything from technical advice to implementation. Challenges in meeting these needs will include finding talent in specialized and evolving IT fields. While AI and automation can enhance productivity, they also threaten to commoditize certain consulting functions. Another ongoing challenge will be pricing pressures from offshore IT service providers, which have lower labor costs and increasingly equal access to advanced technology like AI. The 8 it services & consulting stocks we track reported a satisfactory Q2. As a group, revenues were in line with analysts’ consensus estimates while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 0.7% below. Luckily, it services & consulting stocks have performed well with share prices up 13.4% on average since the latest earnings results. With over 2,500 research experts guiding organizations through complex technology landscapes, Gartner (NYSE:IT) provides research, advisory services, and conferences that help executives make better decisions about technology and other business priorities. Gartner reported revenues of $1.68 billion, flat year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.8%. Overall, it was an exceptional quarter for the company with a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Gartner scored the biggest analyst estimate beat among its peers. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 30.8% since reporting and currently trades at $198.26. Is now the time to buy Gartner? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Evolving from its roots in IT staffing to become a high-end technology consulting powerhouse, Everforth (EFOR) provides specialized IT consulting services and staffing solutions to Fortune 1000 companies and U.S. federal government agencies. Everforth reported revenues of $1.01 billion, down 1.3% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 1.6%. The business had an exceptional quarter with a solid beat of analysts’ EPS guidance for next quarter estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Everforth delivered the highest guidance raise of the whole group. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 38.5% since reporting. It currently trades at $32.42. Is now the time to buy Everforth? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. With a workforce of approximately 774,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is a professional services firm that helps organizations transform their businesses through consulting, technology, operations, and digital services. Accenture reported revenues of $18.72 billion, up 5.6% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. It was a slower quarter as it posted revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations. Accenture delivered the weakest guidance update in the group. Interestingly, the stock is up 13.3% since the results and currently trades at $189.77. Read our full analysis of Accenture’s results here. With a corporate history spanning over a century and once known for its iconic mainframe computers, IBM (NYSE:IBM) provides hybrid cloud computing platforms, AI solutions, consulting services, and enterprise infrastructure to help businesses modernize their operations. IBM reported revenues of $17.16 billion, up 1.1% year on year. This result came in 1.5% below analysts’ expectations. Overall, it was a slower quarter as it also recorded EPS in line with analysts’ estimates. IBM had the weakest performance against analyst estimates among its peers. The stock is up 13.6% since reporting and currently trades at $233.75. Read our full, actionable report on IBM here, it’s free. Born from IBM's managed infrastructure services business in a 2021 spinoff, Kyndryl (NYSE:KD) is the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider that designs, builds, and manages technology environments for enterprise customers. Kyndryl reported revenues of $3.62 billion, down 3.3% year on year. This print missed analysts’ expectations by 0.7%. Zooming out, it was actually a very strong quarter as it recorded a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. The stock is down 8.5% since reporting and currently trades at $13.44. Read our full, actionable report on Kyndryl here, it’s free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market’s biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market’s primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market’s dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Strong Momentum Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

Strong earnings reports often create some of the best momentum setups in the market, especially when a stock gaps sharply higher, holds those gains and then begins consolidating near its highs. That combination can signal that investors are not simply reacting to a one-day surprise, but actively repricing the business as earnings expectations improve. When that initial move is followed by a tight continuation pattern, it can create an attractive setup for another leg higher. Okta (OKTA), Gartner (IT) and Salesforce (CRM) each fit that profile today. All three delivered strong earnings results, gapped higher on the news and are now forming constructive technical patterns that could set the stage for fresh breakouts. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Okta was one of the biggest post-earnings winners last week, with shares surging nearly 29% after the identity-security company delivered a better-than-expected quarter. Second-quarter revenue increased 11% year over year to $805 million, while subscription revenue climbed 12%. More importantly, current remaining performance obligations, a useful indicator of near-term subscription demand, accelerated 14% to $2.59 billion. Free cash flow also jumped to $227 million from $162 million a year earlier. There is also a compelling AI angle developing around the business. As companies deploy autonomous AI agents across their operations, those agents increasingly require identities, permissions and controls just like human employees. Okta is positioning its identity platform as a critical security layer for this emerging infrastructure. That narrative appears to be gaining traction alongside improving fundamentals. Okta currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), and the strong quarter could provide additional support to earnings estimates. Technically, the earnings gap was unusually powerful. Rather than immediately giving back the move, OKTA shares have held near their highs and are now pressing against resistance around $173.50. A decisive move through that level would represent a fresh breakout and could open the door to another leg higher. On the downside, the $164 area is an important near-term support level. As long as shares remain above that zone, the post-earnings setup remains constructive. Image Source: TradingView Gartner offers a somewhat different setup, combining improving earnings momentum with an unusually inexpensive valuation. The research and advisory company reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of $4.37 per share, up nearly 24% year over year and comfortably above expectations. Free cash flow increased 9% to $378 million, while management raised its full-year outlook for adjusted EBITDA, earnings and free cash flow. Gartner also repurchased $547 million of stock during the quarter. The stock now carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while valuation remains compelling. IT shares trade at just 13.8x forward earnings, despite long-term EPS expectations of roughly 20.1% annual growth, giving the stock a PEG ratio of only 0.68. The technical setup is also increasingly constructive. Gartner shares are consolidating beneath resistance around $203, creating a well-defined breakout level. A sustained move above $203 could signal the beginning of another leg higher. Meanwhile, the $190 area has emerged as an important support zone. That gives investors a relatively clear framework: strength above $203 confirms the breakout, while a loss of $190 would weaken the setup. Image Source: TradingView Salesforce may be the most interesting name of the three because its earnings report directly challenged one of the market's most persistent narratives this year. Software stocks were hit hard as investors worried that generative and agentic AI could disrupt traditional SaaS businesses. Salesforce was caught directly in that selloff. But its latest earnings report suggested AI may ultimately prove to be considerably more opportunity than threat. Second-quarter revenue increased 11% year over year to $11.3 billion, while non-GAAP diluted EPS more than doubled to $5.90. Free cash flow surged 81% to $1.1 billion, and Salesforce raised its full-year revenue outlook. Current remaining performance obligations also accelerated to 14% growth. Perhaps most important, the company's AI businesses are gaining substantial traction. Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year, while Agentforce ARR exceeded $1.5 billion and grew more than 240%. Investors responded by sending CRM shares more than 22% higher in the following session. Even after that move, Salesforce trades at only around 17.5x forward earnings, while long-term EPS is forecast to grow roughly 18% annually. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), although the report is still fresh and upward estimate revisions following the quarter could potentially improve that rank. Technically, CRM has not even produced the clean consolidation seen in OKTA and IT yet. Momentum has been so strong that shares continue to push higher following the gap. That makes Salesforce one to watch closely. Ideally, shares would form a tight bull flag or another short consolidation that establishes a cleaner breakout level. More aggressive momentum investors may choose to participate in the runaway move, but waiting for a defined setup would provide a clearer risk-reward profile. Image Source: TradingView What makes these three setups particularly interesting is that they share a broader narrative. Okta, Gartner and Salesforce were all pressured to varying degrees by concerns that AI could disrupt established software and information-services businesses. Investors spent much of the year asking which companies AI might replace. Recent earnings are beginning to suggest that the market may have pushed that thesis too far. Salesforce is already generating rapidly growing AI revenue, Okta may become an increasingly important security layer for autonomous agents, and Gartner continues to produce strong earnings and cash flow despite fears surrounding AI disruption. If investors continue to reconsider the idea that AI is inherently bearish for established software and information businesses, the rerating of these stocks may have considerably further to go. With earnings momentum improving and technicals turning bullish, all three stocks deserve a place near the top of investors' watchlists. 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 Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Okta, Inc. (OKTA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

In recent days, analysts became more optimistic about NetApp’s July 2026-quarter earnings, highlighting an anticipated earnings beat on rising consensus estimates and positive Earnings ESP. At the same time, NetApp’s repeated recognition as a Leader in Gartner’s 2026 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms underscored its positioning in hybrid cloud and AI-ready storage, adding to the improving sentiment ahead of results. We will now examine how this growing analyst optimism around an expected earnings beat could influence NetApp’s existing investment narrative. The best AI stocks today may lie beyond giants like Nvidia and Microsoft. Find the next big opportunity with these 18 smaller AI-focused companies with strong growth potential through early-stage innovation in machine learning, automation, and data intelligence that could fund your retirement. To own NetApp, you generally have to believe that its hybrid cloud and AI-ready storage portfolio can offset pressure on traditional on premises hardware while maintaining healthy margins. The key near term catalyst is the upcoming July 2026 earnings report, where analysts are currently expecting an earnings beat. That optimism does not remove the main risk that cloud partners and hyperscalers could compress margins and dilute NetApp’s differentiation if customers increasingly favor their native storage tools. The recent Gartner recognition of NetApp as a Leader in the 2026 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms is especially relevant here, because it directly reinforces the AI and hybrid cloud positioning that underpins expectations for stronger earnings. By topping the Hybrid Cloud Storage Use Case, NetApp gains third party validation that could support its premium pricing narrative and help counter concerns that growing reliance on hyperscalers might erode its value proposition. Yet, against this backdrop of optimism, investors should be aware that reliance on hyperscalers and possible margin compression could... Read the full narrative on NetApp (it's free!) NetApp's narrative projects $8.5 billion revenue and $1.7 billion earnings by 2029. This requires 7.0% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $0.4 billion from $1.3 billion today. Uncover how NetApp's forecasts yield a $186.31 fair value, in line with its current price. While the latest EPS optimism is encouraging, some of the lowest ranked analysts still assume only about US$8.2 billion revenue and US$1.7 billion earnings by 2029, highlighting how views can differ sharply and why it is worth weighing these more cautious scenarios alongside the risk that rising component costs could pressure AI storage profitability. Explore 3 other fair value estimates on NetApp - why the stock might be worth as much as 15% more than the current price! Disagree with existing narratives? Extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd, so go with your instincts. A great starting point for your NetApp research is our analysis highlighting 3 key rewards and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision. Our free NetApp research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate NetApp's overall financial health at a glance. Don't miss your shot at the next 10-bagger. Our latest stock picks just dropped: Invest in the nuclear renaissance through our list of 92 elite nuclear energy infrastructure plays powering the global AI revolution. Uncover the next big thing with 22 elite penny stocks that balance risk and reward. Capitalize on the AI infrastructure supercycle with our selection of the 55 best 'picks and shovels' of the AI gold rush converting record-breaking demand into massive cash flow. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include NTAP. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. Only one-quarter of AI use cases in customer service produce a return on investment, according to a Gartner analysis of 432 use cases released last month. Another one-quarter deliver negative returns, and 42% have unclear ROI in which support leaders say they simply don’t know the value produced. Only 11% of customer support use cases break even. Despite such unclear returns, more than three-quarters of leaders are planning to increase investment in AI in 2026. Although executives at major companies from Verizon to Airbnb tout the success of their AI chatbots, cost savings from AI investments in customer service remain elusive for most companies. Among business functions, customer service leads AI adoption in the enterprise. Gartner found that customer service and support teams are pursuing on average nearly five AI use cases and committing about 13% of their functional budget to AI. However, customer support leaders are increasingly being graded on something they can’t often prove. More than half of service and support leaders — 56% — expect to have their incentives tied directly to AI outcomes in 2026. This disconnect is a product of a top-down approach that fails to address customers’ actual needs and simplified assumptions about containment and headcount, experts say. “What we're seeing with the deployment, the backstory here is like everyone is trying to get AI,”  Antoine Nasr, head of AI at Forethought AI Agents by Zendesk, told CX Dive. “This is a top-down initiative: We need AI and customer support and customer experience.” Too often, when leadership directs customer support to implement AI, it doesn’t begin with a clear customer problem. “Too many AI rollouts begin with pressure to demonstrate a credible AI strategy to the board, rather than with a clearly defined business problem,” Julie Geller, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, told CX Dive via email. Many businesses expect cost savings via workforce reduction, with AI agents taking over many of the easy-to-answer questions customer service representatives field. But the rate of organizations increasing head count is equivalent to the rate reducing it, with one-quarter reporting workforce growth and about one-quarter reporting reductions, according to Gartner. As more businesses adopt AI, they also need to hire new specialized roles to manage AI. The goal of containment is also a misguided approach if it doesn’t help the customer. “Containment is also too often mistaken for success,” she said. “Delaying contact with a human agent is not the same as resolving the customer’s problem. The real test is much simpler: did the customer get what they needed, with less effort?” Gartner’s research falls in line with a recent report by Forethought AI Agents by Zendesk. While 70% of organizations have rolled out AI in customer experience, only a small percentage are producing value in the form of improving outcomes and ROI.

Gartner’s second quarter results drew a positive market response, as the company delivered revenue and profit metrics above Wall Street expectations despite flat year-over-year sales. Management pointed to higher client engagement and improved retention rates across both its technology and business segments as key contributors to performance. CEO Eugene Hall highlighted mid-single-digit growth among midsized enterprise clients and noted, “Contract value growth accelerated compared to the first quarter,” emphasizing progress in both government and private sector end markets. The company also benefitted from disciplined expense management, which supported margin expansion. Is now the time to buy IT? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $1.68 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.65 billion (flat year on year, 1.8% beat) Adjusted EPS: $4.37 vs analyst estimates of $3.73 (17.1% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $466 million vs analyst estimates of $430.1 million (27.8% margin, 8.4% beat) Operating Margin: 22.6%, up from 19.4% in the same quarter last year Constant Currency Revenue rose 1.6% year on year (4.6% in the same quarter last year) Market Capitalization: $12.2 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Faiza Alwy (Deutsche Bank) asked about the shift in messaging toward AI’s impact, with CEO Eugene Hall emphasizing that AI is now the largest source of client demand and is driving increased relevance for Gartner’s services. Thomas Roesch (William Blair) inquired about the AskGartner tool’s impact on client renewals. CFO Craig Safian explained that AskGartner is part of a broader push to improve overall digital engagement, which is contributing positively to client experience but is just one aspect of the company’s strategy. Jason Haas (Wells Fargo) questioned the likelihood of achieving acceleration in contract value growth for non-federal segments. Safian affirmed that the company expects overall contract value to accelerate, with all segments, including ex-federal, contributing to this trend. Jasper Bibb (Truist Securities) asked about sales headcount and productivity. Hall stated that increased productivity from digital transformation would be prioritized before expanding sales staff, indicating operational leverage. Toni Kaplan (Morgan Stanley) asked about client tech budget reprioritization toward AI and its impact. Hall clarified that while clients are shifting spend toward AI, Gartner’s services remain a small portion of their budgets, and this trend is increasing demand for Gartner’s insights on AI strategy and implementation. In the coming quarters, our analysts will be watching (1) continued growth in AI-driven research demand and its impact on contract value, (2) trends in client engagement and retention as a signal for sustained upsell opportunities, and (3) execution of the BTI transformation to drive productivity and margin improvements. We will also monitor ongoing macroeconomic pressures and the potential for further stabilization in large enterprise spending patterns. Gartner currently trades at $192.39, up from $151.53 just before the earnings. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? Find out in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 6 Stocks for This Week. This market is separating quality stocks from expensive ones fast. AI is taking down whole sectors with no warning. In a rotation this fast, you need more than a list of good companies. Our AI system flagged Palantir before it ran 1,662% between October 2022 and February 2026. AppLovin before it ran 753% between February 2024 and February 2026. Nvidia before it ran 1,178% between January 2023 and February 2026. Each week it produces 6 new names that pass the same tests. Get Our Top 6 Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+214% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Cerebras Systems CBRS reported a second-quarter 2026 loss of 4 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, delivering an 80.95% earnings surprise. Core revenues of $209.87 million rose 103% year over year and topped the consensus estimate by 8.09%. The upside was led by rapid adoption of fast inference services. Core cloud and other services revenues surged 287% year over year to $127.7 million, while remaining performance obligations reached $25.4 billion. Core cloud and other services revenues nearly quadrupled from $33 million a year earlier, reflecting the ramp-up of the OpenAI deployment and higher usage from other cloud customers. Core hardware revenues rose 17% year over year to $82.1 million.Management said the revenue mix can vary significantly from quarter to quarter depending on the timing of large cloud-capacity additions and hardware shipments. Demand remained strong, with several late-stage hardware opportunities representing hundreds of millions of dollars and additional cloud deals targeted for 2027. Cerebras Systems Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Cerebras Systems Inc. Quote Cerebras signed new cloud-capacity agreements with AI coding companies Cognition and Lovable. It cited Block, Figma, AlphaSense and GSK among customers using fast inference for agentic workflows.The company highlighted CrowdStrike as an example of a new security use case, where low-latency large language model inference can inspect enterprise traffic inline. Management also said six deals worth more than $30 million each were signed during the quarter. The company enabled support for OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol at 750 tokens per second. Cerebras also expanded its disaggregated inference strategy with AMD, pairing GPU-based prefill processing with Cerebras systems for decoding.Management said the AMD configuration can maintain Cerebras' speed while increasing throughput by up to fivefold and is expected to enter production in the fourth quarter of 2026. A similar disaggregated inference offering with AWS is expected to become generally available through Amazon Bedrock in the first quarter of 2027. In the second quarter of 2026, core gross margin was 40.6%, up about 940 basis points year over year. Core cloud and other services gross margin was 41.8%, while core hardware gross margin came in at 38.8%. Sequential margin pressure reflected the temporary use of higher-cost systems rented back from cloud customers.Operating expenses totaled $502.8 million. Research and development expenses were $320.2 million, sales and marketing expenses were $87 million, and general and administrative expenses were $95.7 million. The sharp increase in reported expenses included substantial stock-based compensation costs.Core operating loss was $33.6 million compared with $43.9 million a year earlier and core operating margin improved to negative 16% from negative 42%.Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $53.1 million compared with a loss of $38.3 million in the prior-year quarter. The balance sheet strengthened meaningfully. As of June 30, 2026, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments totaled $8.6 billion. The company has access to an $850 million revolving credit facility, which remained unused at quarter-end.For the first six months of 2026, net cash used in operating activities was $47.5 million. Purchases of property and equipment totaled $548.9 million as the company continued investing in the data center and infrastructure capacity needed to support future growth. For the third quarter of 2026, Cerebras expects core revenues to be in the range of  $214-$216 million. Core gross margin is projected between 38% and 40%, while core operating margin is expected between negative 25% and negative 23%.For full-year 2026, management raised core revenue guidance to $880-$890 million. Core gross margin is expected to be 41%-43%, while core operating margin is projected between negative 19% and negative 17%. Management expects core revenues to more than triple in 2027. Cerebras has secured more than 600 megawatts of data center capacity that is either live or under contract for delivery by the end of 2027. Its pipeline of additional data center opportunities is measured in gigawatts, as available capacity remains a key constraint on revenue growth.Manufacturing capacity is expected to increase more than tenfold in 2026, supported by new factory lines at Flex, Sanmina and Rocket EMS. The company secured TSMC wafer supply and highlighted that its architecture does not require High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), CoWoS packaging or 3-nanometer fabrication technology. Currently, Cerebras Systems carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). A few stocks worth considering in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Coursera COUR, Gartner IT, and ESCO Technologies ESE. Coursera and Gartner currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, while ESCO Technologies carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The long-term earnings growth rates for Coursera, Gartner and ESCO Technologies are pegged at 49.63%, 20.97% and 20.89%, respectively. Shares of COUR and IT declined 24.1% and 28.9%, respectively, while ESE shares appreciated 53.7%. 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 Cerebras Systems Inc. (CBRS) : Free Stock Analysis Report ESCO Technologies Inc. (ESE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Coursera, Inc. 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Image source: The Motley Fool. Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET SVP of Investor Relations - David Cohen Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Eugene Hall Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Craig Safian David Cohen: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Gartner's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I'm David Cohen, SVP of Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions] After comments by Gene Hall, Gartner's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Craig Safian, Gartner's Chief Financial Officer, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. This call will include a discussion of second quarter 2026 financial results and Gartner's outlook for 2026, as disclosed in today's earnings release and earnings supplement, both posted to our website, investor.gartner.com. On the call, unless stated otherwise, all references to revenue are for adjusted revenue and all references to EBITDA are for adjusted EBITDA, in each case excluding the divested operation and with the adjustments as described in our earnings release and supplement. All contract values and associated growth rates we discuss are FX neutral. All references to share counts are for fully diluted weighted average share counts unless stated otherwise. Reconciliations for all non-GAAP numbers we use are available in the Investor Relations section of the gartner.com website. As set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can vary materially from actual results and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those contained in the company's 2025 annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as in other filings with the SEC. I encourage all of you to review the risk factors listed in these documents. Now I will turn the call over to Gartner's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gene Hall. Eugene Hall: Good morning. Thanks for joining us today. Second quarter revenue, EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow were ahead of expectations. Return on invested capital was 31%. Client engagement improved again, up 140 basis points compared to last year. Contract value growth accelerated compared to the first quarter. Midsized enterprise clients across both GTS and GBS grew mid-single digits year-over-year. We saw positive NCVI with our government clients. Wallet retention across both GTS and GBS improved sequentially. We delivered above-average growth in several of our end markets, and we remained agile in managing expenses. We have a strong and enduring value proposition. Gartner proactively guides C-level executives and their teams across every major enterprise function, in every major geography, industry and market sector on their journeys to achieve their mission-critical priorities. Our insights help clients in 4 critical areas. We identify blind spots, see around corners, fill critical information gaps and prepare for the future. First, we leverage our vantage point across about 13,000 diverse enterprises to help leaders identify blind spots and avoid common pitfalls. Second, we help leaders see around proverbial corners, which is to say we guide leaders to understand how today's decisions can impact future performance. Third, we help clients fill critical information gaps. For example, most clients have data on their own performance but lack comparative data that helps them understand how their performance compares to others. Gartner provides access to highly detailed proprietary information, such as vast pricing databases, maturity models and cost benchmarks that are not available through public sources. Finally, using our extensive knowledge of end user needs and vendor capabilities, we help our clients determine what the future might look like and how best to prepare. There is no other alternative where clients can get this kind of value on the full breadth and depth of their mission-critical priorities. AI remains the single most requested topic, including with Chief Information Officers, Chief HR Officers, Chief Sales Officers, Chief Marketing Officers and more. Demand for support on AI continues to grow. Gartner proactively covers the full range of AI technologies and priorities: AI strategy, domain and multimodal models, AI cybersecurity, physical AI and robotics. AI cloud-to-edge processing, AI adoption cases and best practices and more. Gartner is at the center of the 3 critical constituencies. We connect more than 80,000 business leaders looking to get value from AI, more than 10,000 CIOs and IT organizations implementing AI, and about 5,000 technology providers building out their AI strategies. In today's world, it's difficult for executives to know which sources they can trust for critical decisions. Our analysts have deep expertise. They're independent and objective. Clients trust Gartner. We're seeing strong demand for help with AI. We also have strong demand for support on other essential priorities, such as cybersecurity, cost optimization, data and analytics, and more. However, in today's environment, persistent macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges are creating new and shifting budget pressures. As a result, executives are scrutinizing expenses, escalating approval processes and delaying decisions. We're taking steps to further strengthen our value proposition to thrive in persistently challenging environments and return to historical growth rates. As we've discussed before, the heart of this change is our Business and Technology Insights transformation. We continue to make progress on this transformation in 4 key areas: volume, impact, timeliness, and user experience. The number of documents in our Insights library is up 18%, which allows us to cover a broader range of mission-critical priorities. The number of higher-impact documents is also up double digits. With the rapid pace of change in AI and other areas, it's essential for clients to stay current. To meet this need, the insights we produce immediately after important events are up significantly. Making it easier for clients to access our insights increases the value they receive from us. To address this, we continue to enhance the Gartner digital experience. And we're improving our sales, services and analyst capabilities to deliver value to our clients. With the strong demand we're seeing for help on mission-critical priorities, such as AI, a vast and growing library of high-impact timely insights and the transformational improvements we're making in our ability to deliver unparalleled client value, we remain optimistic about our future. We expect contract value growth to continue to accelerate. We will continue to drive strong free cash flow that we can put to use to drive incremental shareholder value, and we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound annual basis above 12% over the next 3 years. With that, I'll hand the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Craig Safian. Craig Safian: Good morning. Before updating you on the results of the quarter, I'm going to follow up on several points Gene just made. We are making significant progress on our BTI transformation with a focus on delivering even more value to our clients. Macro dynamics and AI are driving uncertainty and affecting enterprises around the world. The data we see across engagement, retention and growth in multiple end markets reinforces the enduring value of Gartner's expert-led insights. This gives us confidence that this cycle will normalize and CV growth will continue to reaccelerate. Client engagement continues to improve meaningfully, increasing 140 basis points versus last year across both digital and human interactions, underscoring the relevance and the value of our expert insights. Digital engagement improved by more than 110 basis points year-over-year. Human interactions increased more than 150 basis points year-over-year, including through improvements in the usage of analyst consultations. Wallet retention continues to improve as downsell activity stabilizes and overall retention rates improve. In-quarter retention rates increased in Q2, providing another important leading indicator of future growth. We continue to win new business with both existing clients and new enterprises. Our clients have conviction in the value we can deliver for them. We are seeing multiple areas of above-average growth, reinforcing the value our clients place on expert insights and guidance. Core GBS subscription products grew 7% in the quarter. The sales practice grew double digits. Finance and Legal grew mid-single digits and conferences revenue increased 12% year-over-year on an organic FX-neutral basis. Midsized enterprise delivered mid-single-digit CV growth in the quarter. Government CV returned to positive NCVI in the quarter and was an important contributor to overall acceleration. We see this as a leading indicator for the broader client base navigating different but analogous spending constraints. Tech vendors, which are among the organizations closest to AI-related advancements, continue to rely on Gartner for timely and actionable insights. Software and services were again our strongest performing tech vendor subsectors. While some parts of this market are reprioritizing spending as they adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape, demand for our expertise remains healthy. Taken together, these trends demonstrate the resilience of our business model. Even as clients navigate budget pressures and evaluate AI-related investments, total company CV growth accelerated in the quarter. Second quarter contract value or CV grew 2% year-over-year. This was the second consecutive quarter of acceleration. Revenue, EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow in the second quarter were better than expected. We are increasing our EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow guidance for the full year. In the second quarter, we reduced our share count by another 5%, buying back $547 million of stock. Rolling 4-quarter return on invested capital was 31%, and we expect to generate significant free cash flow and have fewer shares outstanding over the course of the next several years. Second quarter revenue was $1.7 billion, up 3% year-over-year as reported and 2% FX neutral. In addition, total contribution margin was strong at 71%. EBITDA was $466 million, up 6% reported and 4% FX neutral. Adjusted EPS was $4.37, up 24% from Q2 of last year. And free cash flow was $378 million, up 9% year-over-year. Insights revenue in the quarter grew 2% year-over-year as reported and 1% FX neutral. Second quarter Insights contribution margin was 77%, up about 140 basis points versus last year. Contract value was $5.3 billion at the end of the second quarter, a sequential increase of 30 basis points from Q1. Year-over-year, CV was up 2%, which is a 70-basis-point acceleration from last quarter. Excluding the U.S. federal government, CV growth was 3.3%. At June 30, we had approximately $125 million of U.S. federal CV. We had about $240 million of new business in the second quarter as there continues to be considerable interest in Gartner's proprietary unbiased insights. Across GTS and GBS, we saw new business dollars increase by about 10% from Q1. As you may have seen in the earnings supplement, we implemented a minor update to how we present FX-neutral KPIs. The details are in the supplement, and our Investor Relations team can answer any questions you may have. Global Technology sales contract value was $4 billion at the end of the second quarter, about flat sequentially and up 1% versus the prior year, a 70-basis-point acceleration from Q1. Excluding the U.S. Federal business, CV grew 3%. Tech vendor year-over-year growth accelerated from Q1, while retention for GTS was 97%, an improvement from the first quarter. Ex-Fed wallet retention was 99%. GTS new business was up 2% compared to last year and up sequentially from Q1 of this year. Global business sales contract value was $1.3 billion at the end of the second quarter, up 1% from Q1 and up 3% year-over-year. Ex-Fed, GBS CV grew 4%. Growth was led by the Sales, Legal and Finance practices. Within GBS, about 90% of the CV is from core subscription products. CV from these products grew about 7% year-over-year in the quarter with even faster growth from our offerings for C-level leaders. Wallet retention for GBS was 99% for the quarter. GBS new business was down 5% compared to last year. Q2 new business was around 20% higher than Q1. The Conferences business continues to perform well. We're seeing strong demand for our insights as clients and prospects want to hear from our experts and interact with one another. Conferences revenue for the second quarter was $244 million. On a same-conference basis, revenue growth was around 12% FX neutral. Contribution margin was 59%. We held 18 destination conferences in the second quarter as planned. Q2 Consulting revenue was $142 million compared to $156 million in the year-ago period. Consulting contribution margin was 38% in Q2. Labor-based revenue was $96 million. This was about in line with our expectation. Second quarter bookings increased 17% over the prior year. Backlog at June 30 was $214 million, up about 9% year-over-year. This was the first year-over-year backlog increase since Q1 of 2025. In contract optimization, we had $148 million of revenue on an LTM basis, consistent with Q1 of this year. The 2-year revenue CAGR was up about 9%. As you know, our contract optimization revenue is highly variable. The performance in Q2 was better than we had expected. EBITDA for the second quarter was $466 million, up 6% from last year's reported and 4% FX neutral. We outperformed expectations in the second quarter through revenue upside, effective expense management and a prudent approach to guidance. Adjusted EPS in Q2 was $4.37, up 24% compared to Q2 last year. We had 67 million shares outstanding in the second quarter. This is an improvement of about 11 million shares or approximately 14% year-over-year. We exited the second quarter with 64 million shares on an unweighted basis. Free cash flow remained strong in the second quarter, up 9% year-over-year. Free cash flow on a rolling 4-quarter basis was $1.3 billion. Adjusting for several items detailed in the earnings supplement, free cash flow was 20% of reported revenue, 78% of adjusted EBITDA and 140% of GAAP net income. At the end of the second quarter, we had about $1.5 billion of cash. This includes about $500 million for running the business and around $1 billion available to deploy on behalf of shareholders. Our June 30 debt balance was about $3 billion. Our reported gross debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA was under 2x. We repurchased $547 million of stock during the second quarter, reducing our share count by more than 5% sequentially. Last week, the Board increased the buyback authorization to about $1.2 billion. We expect the Board will continue to evaluate and refresh the amount as needed. We are updating our full year guidance to reflect recent performance and trends. The update includes the effect of foreign exchange rates, reflecting a stronger U.S. dollar compared with our prior guidance from 3 months ago. For Insights revenue in 2026, our guidance is operationally unchanged. We revised the outlook to account for the stronger dollar. For Conferences, we are basing our guidance on the 55 in-person destination conferences we have planned for 2026. We have good visibility into current year revenue with the majority of what we've guided already under contract. For Consulting, we have maintained the outlook for the full year. Contract optimization has had several very strong years, and the business remains highly variable. For 2026, we expect revenue at or above $6.375 billion, which is updated from last quarter and is FX-neutral growth of 1%. With positive NCVI in Q2, we expect Insights revenue in Q3 to be up sequentially on an FX-neutral basis. Reported results will reflect the effect of the stronger dollar. We now expect full year EBITDA at or above $1.57 billion. Compared with our prior guidance, this is up $40 million on an operational basis and up $25 million net of the effect of the stronger dollar. This reflects full year margins at or above 24.6%, also up from last quarter. We expect 2026 adjusted EPS at or above $14, an increase from last quarter that primarily reflects the increase in the EBITDA outlook and a lower share count. For 2026, we expect free cash flow at or above $1.185 billion, also an increase from the prior guidance. This reflects a conversion from GAAP net income of 136%. Our guidance is based on 66 million fully diluted weighted average shares outstanding, which incorporates the repurchases made through the end of the second quarter. We exited Q2 with about 64 million fully diluted shares. For Q3, we expect EBITDA at or above $315 million. Our revenue, profit, and cash flow results in Q2 were ahead of expectations. We've increased the EBITDA, adjusted EPS, and free cash flow guidance for 2026. Contract value ex-Fed grew 3.3% in the quarter and total CV year-over-year growth improved by 70 basis points from Q1 of 2026. We are making progress on our BTI transformation with a focus on delivering even more value to our clients. Macro dynamics and AI are driving uncertainty and affecting enterprises around the world. The data we see across engagement, retention and growth in multiple end markets reinforces the enduring value of Gartner's expert-led insights. This gives us confidence that this cycle will normalize and CV growth will continue to reaccelerate. Gartner's return on invested capital was strong at 31% on a rolling 4-quarter basis. We continue to generate significant amounts of free cash flow. We expect the conversion of GAAP net income will improve as CV accelerates. We believe this offers a durable and compelling value proposition for our shareholders. We are positioned to accelerate CV growth in 2026, and we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound basis above 12% over the next 3 years. Over time, we'll opportunistically deploy our capital on stock repurchases, which will lower the share count and on strategic value-enhancing tuck-in M&A. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator, and we'll be happy to take your questions. Operator? Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank. Faiza Alwy: I wanted to ask about how your thoughts have evolved around the role of macro and AI kind of impacting your business? Because I feel like this is the first time that you've mentioned sort of AI as a factor. Historically, we've been talking more about the macro factors like tariffs. So just curious kind of what's kind of driven the change in messaging around there? Eugene Hall: Yes, Faiza. What I'd say is that during Q2, the selling environment improved. And I'd say many of the factors that we've talked about were modestly better. The most notable one obviously being part of the public sector, but other sectors as well. AI actually for us is something we get a lot of demand for. It's the single biggest demand from our clients. And so it's actually quite valuable to our clients. And again, we see the single biggest driver of demand from helping clients with AI. Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Thomas Roesch: This is Tom Roesch on for Andrew Nicholas. I wanted to ask about the AskGartner solution. And I was wondering if you could provide some color on how renewal rates for users of AskGartner compared to those who don't? And also any type of benefits you're seeing like in revenue renewals, retention, any type of those numbers at this point? Craig Safian: So I think the way to think about AskGartner, and Gene referenced this in the BTI transformation, it's just a piece of all the things we're doing to enhance the user experience, both from a digital user experience perspective and also the experience when people do interact with our analysts and our experts. And AskGartner for us is table stakes, because that's the way a lot of people are now, when they're behind the firewall or working through information, they are leveraging a large language model. Our core value is really driving people there to our site proactively, because we know what their mission-critical priorities are. We know what their interests are, and we know what they should be thinking about many times before they even know what they should be thinking about. And they really put a huge premium on that proactivity. And then when they do come, they are proactively brought in behind the firewall, then AskGartner is one of our many digital tools that they can utilize to further enhance their experience, their insights, their intelligence moving forward on their MCPs. It's all positive. But again, I would highlight the broader digital experience as being the more important thing, and actually the broader overall engagement experience across all of the elements that Gartner delivers value is really what we're focused on. AskGartner is obviously a piece of that, but not the biggest piece of it. It's an important piece, but more broadly, we're enhancing the overall experience, making it more effective and more efficient for our clients to connect with the insights they need to accomplish their mission-critical priorities. Operator: Our next question comes from Jason Haas with Wells Fargo. Jason Haas: I'm curious if you're still expecting the ex-federal government CV growth to accelerate to 4% plus by the end of this year? Craig Safian: Yes. So along with overall CV growth continuing to accelerate this year, it is our expectation that the ex-Fed CV growth will be a part of that. So short answer is yes. We do expect the entire business to continue to accelerate, ex-Fed being a piece of that reacceleration as well. Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Meuler with Baird. Jeffrey Meuler: Could you go into more detail, I guess, on your takeaway from the midsized client base growing mid-single and what's different relative to large enterprise? One thing that would come to my mind that I'd be curious on your thoughts on is like if large enterprise just has more downselling of number of seats, but I don't know if there's any other takeaways from you because I would think the initiatives that you've been implementing would benefit both client sizes generally. Eugene Hall: Jeff, it's Gene. Great question. I think what's going on with midsized enterprises is, these are enterprises that are -- again, there are typically revenues of $100 million or more. So these are not small enterprises, but they're smaller than the very large enterprises. And so the level of complexity in their environment is lower. And so when they're tackling things like AI, it's easier for them to actually get to what are the big areas that they can get a good return on, how they track the costs. All that stuff is much easier to control with the midsized enterprise. I think large enterprises, these very large enterprises, they're extremely complicated. And I think it's very hard for leaders to sort out all of the puts and takes in terms of both where the value is and in terms of how you manage cost. I think that's the big difference is, in the smaller enterprises, actually, it's easier to manage all the stuff they're making more progress. In the larger enterprises, it's a much more complex problem that they're still wrestling with how you actually get that ROI and control cost and risk and things like that. Craig Safian: And I think, Jeff, the other thing I would add is, in the larger enterprises, they tend to be more global in nature and so more impacted by all of the uncertainty that exists out there. The one thing I would say is, and again, I would echo your point, all the things we're doing from BTI transformation and across the board will benefit all clients of all sizes, across GTS, the end user piece, the tech vendor piece, and across GBS. We did note that we are seeing downsell stabilize in the second quarter, which, again, is largely a larger company phenomenon. So we're actually seeing some improvement there. We noted also that we are seeing in-quarter retention rates improve. That's a phenomenon across the entire portfolio as well. And so back to Jason's question a little bit, with ex-Fed accelerating, we need the entire portfolio to accelerate, and that would be inclusive of midsized enterprises, large enterprises and our largest clients across the board as well. Operator: Our next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS. Joshua Chan: I guess on Gene's comment about the selling environment improving, I was wondering if you could make a comment about the ex-Fed selling environment. Do you see that improving as well through the quarter? And for you to get to the target of acceleration for the year, what kind of needs to happen on an ex-Fed environment basis, I suppose? Eugene Hall: So I'd say on the ex-Fed selling environment, there are areas where it's gotten better and there's areas where it's gotten worse. And so I'd sort of say there's a mix of that. And so the areas where the macro has gotten better, I think that's performed very well. And the areas where it's gotten worse has been a little bit more challenging. And so I sort of say that's what's going on kind of under the covers. And again, as Craig said, we expect that to accelerate over time. Craig Safian: And again, Josh, I think what it comes down to is, our belief, and I think a lot of people believe this, that this kind of environment is sort of the new normal to some extent. And so all of the transformations we're doing and all the ways we are improving the business and focusing on execution and all of those things are meant to be able to accelerate the business in the current environment. And so again, we don't need a radical shift in the environment for the CV to continue to accelerate. We don't need a radical shift in the environment for the ex-Fed CV to accelerate. We just need to execute better, and we've got all the things in line. And again, as I mentioned and Gene mentioned in our prepared remarks, as we look under the covers at a lot of our KPIs, they are definitely trending positively. And when we see those things trend positively, generally results in improved performance over time. Operator: Our next question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Manav Patnaik: I was just hoping you could help understand the new business number. I think you said it was plus 2% in GTS and down 5% in GBS, and kind of square that off with your commentary around increased engagement in new sales and so forth. And I guess, within that, and maybe overall, just how is price tracking? Craig Safian: Manav, I'll start off, and Gene can fill in any blanks. So I think there's a few things I'd highlight on the new business. So one is, as you know, and many of those who follow us for a while, we generally see new business dollars build from Q1 to Q2 to Q3 to Q4. So each quarter, we generally generate more new business dollars than the previous quarter. And as I noted in my prepared remarks and highlighted for both GTS and GBS, we did see a nice progression from Q1 to Q2 in new business dollars, which we view as very positive. When we look under the covers at sales pipelines and new business pipelines, they are also trending positively. And as you know, having new business pipelines doesn't immediately translate into growing new business, but certainly it gives us a much better shot of continuing to drive that build from Q2 to Q3 and then Q3 to Q4 from a new business perspective and drive gains in new business as well. When we look under the covers at things like engagement and things of that nature, that's really about future retention rates. But what I would say is, obviously, future retention is also a good predictor of future new business. If you're not driving strong retention rates, it's really hard to grow those clients. And so the more that we can drive higher retention rates within our existing clients, the more new business opportunities we have as well. And again, you saw wallet retention increased sequentially, that you should see build as well over time as we both drive stronger retention rates with our existing clients. And then with more clients retaining, we have more at bats, if you will, to drive new business with existing clients as well. And so I think it's a combination of all those things. And so primarily, the engagement gives us confidence about the retention rates. The retention rates give us confidence about being able to drive new business from existing clients and then you flip over to the new business pipelines, which remain very strong and positive, that gives us confidence around the new logo contribution moving forward as well. Operator: Our next question comes from Surinder Thind with Jefferies. Surinder Thind: I was hoping maybe you can provide a bit more color on the wallet retention. Obviously, things got a little bit better quarter-over-quarter. But I think there was also commentary around continued downsell pressure within the large enterprises. Maybe just how you think about where downsell pressure is versus maybe where you would like it to be? And just some of the things that are the factors that you think are driving it in the near term versus structurally where we think we are longer term on that, that would be helpful. Craig Safian: Surinder, so I think the commentary is really that we're seeing downsell stabilize. And so it didn't get worse Q1 to Q2. It is stabilizing. And if you think about when a contract comes up for renewal, there are 1 of 3 or 4 things that could happen. And so when there is downsell, it means we lose the upsell opportunity. And while our retention is really a function of the combination of renewing the base, obviously, there are a small amount of clients that will cancel, but you see client retention rates are improving and are at or near sort of historical highs. And so that's really not a challenge for us. But when a client decides to either hold spend or reduce spend, that is a missed opportunity for us to increase the spend, which generally translates into those higher wallet retention rates. We believe that over time, with better engagement levels, all the improvements we're making that Gene highlighted on BTI that, that will lead to stronger retention rates. That stabilizes the wallet retention and gives us more opportunities to grow that going forward. It could be just growth through price. It could be growth through upgrading people to higher-level services, or it could be growth from finding new license users or finding new buying centers within those existing enterprises. But we view wallet getting more back to normal over time as we drive all these improvements in BTI and engagement, which stabilizes the retention base and then just gives us more opportunity to grow that existing client base. Operator: Our next question comes from Jasper Bibb with Truist Securities. Jasper Bibb: I just wanted to ask how you're thinking about managing quota-bearing head count in the context of this reacceleration in the second half and then into '27. Like do you expect to add more salespeople in the second half to support that CV reacceleration? Or do you think you get there on productivity gains? Eugene Hall: Jasper, so we basically want to add sales headcount when we have great productivity. And right now, we look at it as we have a lot of capacity that is underutilized, and that with the changes we're making like the BTI transformation I talked about, the increased engagement that Craig talked about, we think that will actually drive our productivity up. We'll get a nice lift there. As that comes up, we will expect to accelerate our headcount growth. And so it really depends on kind of how we see this improvement in productivity developing over time. Craig Safian: And Jasper, I would just add, we're actively managing our operating expense base, so that we can remain agile and ensure we can deliver on our profit expectations, free cash flow expectations, et cetera. And then just I would reiterate what Gene said, which is we have plenty of capacity to significantly reaccelerate CV, even getting to half or 3/4 of our historical productivity levels, that would provide a significant uplift to the CV growth. And again, that return to productivity would give us the confidence that Gene highlighted to reignite investment in QBH. But again, it's all about balanced managing of our OpEx base, making sure we're getting productivity out of our existing cost base. And then when we see that, that's the signal to go faster on the QBH side. Operator: Our next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Keen Fai Tong: You talked about CV growth continuing to accelerate from current levels and highlighted several drivers. Can you rank order the key drivers you expect to fuel CV growth acceleration and what you see as a reasonable medium-term target for CV growth? Eugene Hall: So what I'd say, George, is the thing that's going to drive CV growth the most are 2 factors. The first is as engagement with our clients increases, that strengthens retention. And then as our client retention increases, obviously, if we retain a client, just as Craig explained earlier, our opportunity to grow on that client increases. And so I think the first thing we'll see is increased engagement leads to higher retention. Now high retention actually leads to more new business with our existing clients. Then on top of that, as we make the changes and get higher engagement, that also makes it easier to sell new clients, too. It makes the value proposition more transparent to new opportunities as well. And so then that will kick as well. So I think those are the 3 key factors that impact it. Craig Safian: And George, I would just add, obviously, in the near term, the biggest impact is a combo of lapping the U.S. Fed and that business actually getting back to growth as well. And so again, I know that's baked into a lot of the way people are thinking already. And so that's fine. But mathematically, that will provide a nice lift this year. And then again, we believe that, that business -- and again, both Gene and I noted in our prepared remarks that we actually drove NCVI in that space in the second quarter. So that's another piece of it as well that sort of gets rolled into the total and will behave exactly the way Gene highlighted. But obviously, we won't have the same challenges we had in 2025 from the U.S. Fed business going forward. Keen Fai Tong: And a reasonable medium-term target for CV growth? Craig Safian: George, you should know us better than that, that we do not provide CV guidance or medium-term growth. I think the short answer is we expect CV growth to continue to reaccelerate. We've got to go through -- continue through the low single digits to get to mid-single digits and then get through mid-single digits and beyond. And we look forward to updating everyone each quarter, but we're not going to provide a medium-term target on the CV growth as is our normal practice. Operator: Our next question comes from Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley. Toni Kaplan: You mentioned in the prepared remarks, clients are reprioritizing their tech budgets. I imagine a lot of them are putting sort of more expense dollars towards utilizing large LLMs and related expenses. Is that largely what you were referring to? And are you seeing any impact in the amount that they're willing to spend with you as a result of the reprioritization? Eugene Hall: Toni, so you're correct in that clients are reprioritizing their IT spending to shift more towards AI. LLM is one piece of it, but more towards AI. What I'd say is that doesn't impact us in a negative way directly, because if you look at the amount they spend with us relative to their IT budgets, we're very, very small. I think 0.1% or less for typical clients. And so as they reprioritize -- actually, as I mentioned before, the biggest single driver of demand for us for our clients, including IT, is help with AI. So we're actually helping them figure out how do they reprioritize. And so in that sense, it's actually driving demand for our products as we help them reprioritize. And again, across both within IT and across the business, typically, companies are trying to reprioritize to free up more money for AI, and we're helping them with that. Operator: Our next question comes from Scott Wurtzel with Wolfe Research. Scott Wurtzel: Craig, just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about some of the OpEx efficiencies that you're recognizing in the context of you're excluding FX, you're raising your revenue outlook by $5 million, EBITDA by $40 million. So just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the OpEx efficiencies. Craig Safian: Yes, Scott, thanks for the question. I think it's ongoing best practice around making sure that our in-quarter OpEx rates align with the revenue, but more importantly, that our run rates align with our revenue CV expectations rolling forward. So we continue to manage the business to ensure that we are delivering on our profit targets and also delivering on our free cash flow targets. What I would say is a lot of the reprioritization is to make sure that we are investing in key areas that we know will drive short-term, medium-term and long-term growth. And so there's a lot of reprioritization happening on a quarterly basis. It's not always in the name of driving profitability. It is often in the name of making sure that we're able to double and triple down in the places that we think are most important for delivering value for our clients and that we think are most important for delivering long-term value for the company and our stakeholders as well. Operator: Our next question comes from Daniel Zako with BMO Capital Markets. Jeffrey Silber: This is actually Jeff Silber with BMO. Other companies in the space have talked about potentially changing economics, maybe a faster move to enterprise pricing or a consumption-based model. Is that something you're contemplating? And if not, why not? Eugene Hall: So we talk to our clients and do market research on a pretty much continual basis to understand how they want to work with us and how they feel about our pricing. And what I'd say is if you look at who we're targeting with our research, it's typically the C-level, like the CIO, CFO, their direct reports and maybe one level down. And so an organization that might have 1,000 people or 10,000 people or 50,000 people, we're targeting a handful of those people. And when we go back to talk to clients about how they want to pay for it, how they want to structure their contracts, they like the way we do it today as seat-based because they don't see a need to have it with all 10,000 of their associates. And if I can contrast that, there's some like software purchases where they sort of say, like if you buy a lot of packaged software sort of say, well, I need it for each of my associates. We're not in that kind of a business. It's really focused on the top really 3 levels in the organization are our core clients. And when we ask them how they want to pay, they don't say we want enterprise licenses. They actually like the way that we're working today. Craig Safian: And Jeff, just to add to that. I mean, again, if you look at the average spend on the GTS side, it's probably about 6 licenses per enterprise. On the GBS side, it's a little bit lower than that. And so again, we are really targeting, to echo Gene's point, the top of the org chart, that person's direct reports, and in large organizations, a level or 2 down from that. We are not targeting the enterprise. We are targeting the C-level, because those are the people that have significant enterprise-wide mission-critical priorities that we can drive the most value for, and that's where we're going to continue to focus and drive a lot of our growth and value. Operator: Our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets. Ashish Sabadra: Maybe a quick clarifying question. Can we know what the ex-Fed NCVI was in the quarter? We get around $11 million from Fed and $3 million from ex-Fed NCVI. Just wanted to confirm that. And then just a follow-up on prior responses. I was just wondering, can you talk about which areas are you seeing continued pressure? Are there certain industries or -- for example, tariff impacted industries were impacted last year? Do you see easy comps going into this year? Craig Safian: Ashish, I'll start with the computational stuff, and then we can dive into the more macro question. So ex-Fed NCVI in the quarter was about positive $4 million. So that's the math on that. In terms of -- do you want to cover the tariff impact? Eugene Hall: Yes. In terms of industries, again, companies that have tariffs imposed have much tighter cost constraints for that company than ones that don't. And so that's clearly a macro factor that continues to impact us for those companies, that tariffs. As I mentioned before, and Craig mentioned this as well, we're assuming that the world is going to be like that for the go-forward basis. And so we're restructuring our business, especially with the BTI transformation, so that our value goes up, so that even in industries where there's a big macro dislocation, that actually they see the value in our products and are going to want to buy and grow with us. Craig Safian: And Ashish, just the one thing I'd also just highlight is, it's really the uncertainty. There are lots of different macro factors that are popping up on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. They ebb and flow, but it's causing just lots of uncertainty around the enterprises that we serve globally, and we're adapting and transforming, so that we can perform better given all that uncertainty. Operator: Our next question comes from Curtis Nagle with Bank of America. Curtis Nagle: Just switching gears a little bit just on consulting. I think you said the backlog is $214 million or so, first increase in about a year or so. I guess where are you seeing incremental demand? What's driving that improvement? Craig Safian: Yes. Curtis, I think it's a little bit better execution across the board, a little bit of just driving better focus with our core anchor clients. There's no like one thematic around we sold a lot of this kind of project or this kind of engagement. I think the team has just been laser-focused on, one, delivering on the backlog that we have; and two, generating the pipeline and turning that into bookings so that we've got more backlog to burn in the future. Obviously, in Q2, we had a very strong bookings quarter. Again, no uber trend among the type of business that we did end up selling, but it's just a matter of staying close to our clients, understanding where they have needs, and then our consulting team diving in to meet those demands and meet those needs. And so we feel good now about the full year outlook, particularly on the labor-based side, given the strong bookings quarter, and we need to follow it up with another strong bookings quarter, so that we can keep the backlog growing, so that we can return that business to growth over the medium term. Operator: I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Gene Hall for closing remarks. Eugene Hall: So in closing, with the strong demand we're seeing for help on mission-critical priorities such as AI, our vast and growing library of high-impact timely insights and the transformational improvements we're making in our ability to deliver unparalleled client value, we remain optimistic about our future. We expect contract value growth to continue to accelerate. We will continue to drive strong free cash flow that we put to use to drive incremental shareholder value, and we expect to deliver adjusted EPS on a compound annual basis above 12% over the next 3 years. Thanks for joining us today, and I look forward to updating you again next quarter. Operator: Thank you for your participation. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. Before you buy stock in Gartner, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Gartner wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $411,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,335,252!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by 4x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 11, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool recommends Gartner. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Gartner (IT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Gartner, Inc. IT combines a discounted valuation with improving earnings expectations, but its revenue picture remains uneven. Profitability and free cash flow are holding up better than the top line, giving investors a clear reason to examine the stock after its valuation reset. The key question is whether stronger earnings signals and cash generation are enough to outweigh slower sales growth, weakness in Consulting and balance-sheet constraints. Gartner trades at 12.6X forward 12-month earnings, below the industry’s 14.4X, the sector’s 18.1X and the S&P 500’s 20.7X. The stock also sits well below its five-year median of 33.9X, leaving valuation as one of the clearest positives in the investment case. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Image Source: Zacks Investment Research That discount matters because Gartner is not being priced like its own recent history. For investors willing to accept slower growth and operating uncertainty, the lower multiple provides a wider valuation cushion than the company has typically offered. Gartner raised its 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to at least $14 per share from $13.25. It also lifted its adjusted EBITDA outlook, excluding the divested operation, to at least $1.57 billion from $1.55 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has moved 3.9% higher over the past four weeks. That upward revision trend strengthens the earnings side of the case even as the company’s revenue guidance has become more restrained. Management lowered its 2026 adjusted revenue outlook to at least $6.38 billion from $6.41 billion and reduced the Insights revenue forecast to at least $5.17 billion from $5.20 billion. Second-quarter Consulting revenues fell 8.8% year over year to $142 million, while Conferences revenues rose 15.5% to $244 million. Forrester Research, Inc. FORR, another research and advisory provider, reported second-quarter 2026 contract value down 3% year over year. Accenture ACN, a major consulting competitor, reported fiscal second-quarter consulting revenue growth of 3% in local currency. Those results provide useful context for Gartner’s mixed segment trends. Gartner generated $378 million of free cash flow in the second quarter and about $1.3 billion over the trailing 12 months. Management also raised its 2026 free cash flow outlook to at least $1.19 billion, supporting continued financial flexibility and capital returns. The balance sheet still deserves attention. Gartner had about $3 billion of total debt at June 30, while its current ratio was roughly 0.88. Competition, foreign-exchange swings and the cost of attracting and retaining skilled analysts, consultants and sales professionals remain additional risks. The stock’s setup favors investors who prioritize valuation and earnings revisions over rapid near-term revenue expansion. The lower earnings multiple, higher earnings guidance and cash generation are constructive, but slower adjusted revenue expectations and Consulting weakness argue against treating the discount as risk-free. Gartner currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). It carries a Value Score of A and VGM Score of A. Its Growth Score of B and Momentum Score of B are also favorable. The combination supports the stock’s near-term profile, though the uneven top line and liquidity considerations remain important when weighing whether to buy now or wait for clearer revenue acceleration. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. 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 Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Accenture PLC (ACN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Forrester Research, Inc. (FORR) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Contract value (CV) growth acceleration was driven by improved client engagement and a return to positive net contract value increase (NCVI) within the government sector. Management attributes the current selling environment to a 'new normal' of persistent macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, leading to escalated expense scrutiny and delayed decision-making. AI has emerged as the single most requested topic across all C-level functions, serving as a primary demand driver for Gartner's independent, expert-led insights. The Business and Technology Insights (BTI) transformation is increasing the volume and timeliness of high-impact research to better address rapid technological shifts. Midsized enterprises are currently outperforming large enterprises in CV growth due to lower organizational complexity, which allows for faster ROI realization on AI initiatives. Operational agility and effective expense management allowed for margin expansion and EBITDA outperformance despite the challenging macro backdrop. The company is leveraging its unique position at the intersection of 80,000 business leaders, 10,000 CIOs, and 5,000 tech providers to capture AI-related market share. Management expects CV growth to continue its reacceleration trajectory throughout 2026 as the impact of the U.S. Federal business headwind normalizes. The company projects a compound annual adjusted EPS growth rate of above 12% over the next three years, supported by share repurchases and operational leverage. Guidance assumes that the current high-scrutiny spending environment persists, with growth driven by internal execution and productivity gains rather than macro improvement. Sales headcount growth is contingent upon reaching historical productivity levels, with current capacity deemed sufficient to support near-term acceleration. Free cash flow conversion from GAAP net income is expected to improve as contract value growth continues to scale. The U.S. Federal business, which had been a significant headwind, returned to positive NCVI in Q2, signaling a potential recovery in broader public sector spending. Share count was reduced by 14% year-over-year through aggressive buybacks, with a newly increased authorization of approximately $1.2 billion. Foreign exchange volatility remains a factor, with a stronger U.S. dollar leading to a downward adjustment in reported revenue guidance despite unchanged operational outlook. Consulting backlog saw its first year-over-year increase since Q1 2025, driven by a 17% increase in bookings. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management clarified that while macro factors like tariffs create budget pressure, AI is a significant demand tailwind that helps clients prioritize spending. The selling environment is viewed as a mix of areas improving and others remaining challenged, requiring better execution rather than a macro shift. Midsized enterprises are growing faster because they can manage the costs and risks of AI adoption more easily than complex global organizations. Large enterprises are seeing stabilized downsell activity, which management views as a leading indicator for future wallet retention improvements. Management explicitly rejected a move to enterprise-wide pricing, stating that their C-level target audience prefers the current seat-based model. Gartner's value proposition is focused on the top three levels of an organization rather than broad associate-level access. Current sales capacity is underutilized; management will only accelerate quota-bearing headcount growth once productivity levels return toward historical norms. The focus remains on driving productivity through the BTI transformation and improved digital engagement tools.

Gartner (IT) came out with quarterly earnings of $4.37 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.77 per share. This compares to earnings of $3.53 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +15.92%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this technology information and analysis company would post earnings of $2.99 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.32, delivering a surprise of +11.04%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Gartner, which belongs to the Zacks Consulting Services industry, posted revenues of $1.68 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.80%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.69 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Gartner shares have lost about 39.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 11%. While Gartner has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Gartner was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $2.71 on $1.5 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $13.61 on $6.43 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Consulting Services is currently in the top 28% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. One other stock from the same industry, Stantec (STN), is yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 12. This engineering firm is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.15 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +17.4%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 0.8% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. Stantec's revenues are expected to be $1.3 billion, up 13% from the year-ago quarter. 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 Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Stantec Inc. (STN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

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. Gartner, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Gartner, Inc. Quote 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. 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%. 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 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. 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. 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 Gartner, Inc. (IT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Equifax, Inc. (EFX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research