Gartner (IT) Q1 FY26 earnings call: guidance and Q&A

Did the geopolitical slowdown in March continue into April, and how is the mix of new business evolving?

Gene Hall confirmed that many deals delayed in March due to geopolitical factors actually closed in April. Craig Safian added that the slowdown and subsequent recovery were broad-based across both new logo and existing client upsells.

“By and large, clients and prospects told us, we still want to buy from you, but we can't make a decision today. To your point, as a role to April, we're seeing many of those deals actually closed where clients delayed in March, but actually be came through and closed in April.”

asked by Jeffrey Meuler · answered by Eugene Hall

Where was the geopolitical slowdown most pronounced, and is Gartner re-evaluating its pricing strategy given AI demand?

Gene Hall stated the slowdown was across industries, worse in financial institutions and directly impacted countries like the GCC, but also affected the U.S. On pricing, he affirmed current pricing is appropriate, with different service levels available for price-sensitive clients. Craig Safian emphasized targeting top executives with less price sensitivity.

“So there was a slowdown across the board by by industry. It was worse in some places than others. So if you could imagine, with airlines and transportation companies, it was worse in financial institutions, for example.”

asked by Faiza Alwy · answered by Eugene Hall

When will the U.S. federal government business headwind alleviate, given its 250 bps impact in Q1?

Craig Safian explained that the significant challenges from the DOGE impacts started in March of last year, so Q2 FY26 marks the point where Gartner begins to lap those challenges. He noted the business is rebaselined and expected to be flat in 2026.

“From a U.S. federal CV perspective, we exited Q1 with about $114 million worth of U.S. federal CV spread across GTS and GBS... What we saw from a renewal rate perspective in the quarter was obviously a significant improvement on a year-over-year basis.”

asked by Andrew Nicholas · answered by Craig Safian

Do pre-existing long-term targets still hold, and how will ex-federal CV accelerate through the year?

Craig Safian confirmed that medium-term objectives still apply to a normal operating environment and can be found in the Gartner 101 presentation. He reiterated expectations for CV growth to accelerate across the board in 2026, driven by both U.S. Fed recovery and non-U.S. Fed acceleration.

“There's no change to the medium-term objectives. I would say those objectives really do apply to a normal operating environment, and you can still find those medium-term objectives in our Gartner 101 presentation, which is on the Investor Relations site.”

asked by Jason Haas · answered by Craig Safian

Would Gartner consider distributing data via large LLM providers, and what's driving the slowdown in the Consulting segment?

Gene Hall stated Gartner's value proposition is proactive, human-centric advisory, which doesn't fit well with reactive LLM distribution. He attributed the Consulting slowdown to the macro environment and longer client decision cycles, not structural issues, noting it's a different behavior than Q4.

“what clients rule out us for is for us to proactively go to them and say, given your mission-critical priorities, here's the things you should be worried about, things you may not have thought of, things that you might be surprised by. And so what they rely on us for is to be very proactive as opposed to wait and answer a question.”

asked by Toni Kaplan · answered by Eugene Hall