Gartner Reports 'Outstanding' Start to the Year

First quarter revenues at global research and advisory firm Gartner rose 8.4% to $1.1 billion, with reported profit more than doubling to $164.1m (vs $75m in Q1 2020). Adjusted EBITDA rose 50% to $320m, from $214m a year before.

Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner provides a combination of practitioner-sourced and data-driven research, supporting more than 14,000 enterprises in over 100 countries. As a result of the pandemic, the firm temporarily closed its offices (including its corporate headquarters) in the US, UK, India, and several other impacted locations around the world. Although it has plans to reopen most offices in the fall of 2021, it says this is subject to many factors outside its control. Last year, the company saw negative impacts to all of its segments, with Conferences by far the worst hit, and says it is now planning to resume in-person conferences starting in September 2021.

In the first quarter of 2021, Research division revenues increased by 8% year-over-year to $979.7m from $909.2m in Q1 2020, while Conferences revenues increased by 79% to $24.8m, and Consulting by 4% to $99.5m. In the US and Canada, Research revenues rose from $590.1m in last year's first quarter to $631.2m in Q1 2021; in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they were $230.2m, compared with $205.9m the first quarter of 2020; and in other international areas, they rose to $118.1m from $113.1m. However, the Research segment continued to experience a slowdown, with contract value growth (constant currency) at 5.8% in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 10.5% in Q1 2020.

CEO Gene Hall (pictured) comments: 'We had an outstanding start to the year with strong growth in contract value, revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow. Given robust demand and effective cost management, we have meaningfully updated our 2021 guidance. We repurchased more than $600m of stock through the end of April reflecting our commitment to return significant amounts of free cash flow to shareholders'.

Web site: www.gartner.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.