Gartner, Inc. (IT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 7, 2023 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

David Cohen - SVP of Investor Relations

Gene Hall - Chief Executive Officer

Craig Safian - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeff Meuler - Baird

Heather Balsky - Bank of America

Toni Kaplan - Morgan Stanley

Andrew Nicholas - William Blair

Seth Weber - Wells Fargo

George Tong - Goldman Sachs

Jeff Silber - BMO Capital Markets

Manav Patnaik - Barclays

Operator

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Gartner's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. I'm David Cohen, SVP of Investor Relations. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After comments by Gene Hall Gartner’s Chief Executive Officer and Craig Safian Gartner’s Chief Financial Officer. There will be a question-and-answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

This call will include a discussion of fourth quarter 2022 financial results and Gartner's outlook for 2023 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 EBITDA are for adjusted EBITDA. With the adjustments as described in our earnings release and supplement. All growth rates in Gene's comments are FX neutral unless stated otherwise. And its contract value comments exclude Russia from 2021. 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.

Finally, all contract values and associated growth rates we discuss are based on 2022 foreign exchange rates unless stated otherwise. 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 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K, 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 Chief Executive Officer, Gene Hall.

Gene Hall

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. Gartner drove a strong performance in the fourth quarter with double-digit growth in contract value, revenue, EBITDA and EPS. We generated nearly $1 billion in free cash flow and we returned even more than that to shareholders through our ongoing share repurchase program. Enterprise leaders are dealing with high volatility and uncertainty. Inflation accelerated to the highest level in 40-years. The dollar was the strongest it's been in 20-years and it remains extremely volatile.