Earnings Labs

Gartner, Inc. (IT)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 5, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Gartner's earnings conference call for the third quarter 2015. A replay of this call will be available through December 5, 2015. The replay can be accessed by dialing 888-286-8010 for domestic calls and 617-801-6888 for international calls, and by entering the pass code 45632822. This call is being simultaneously webcast and will be archived on Gartner's website at www.gartner.com, for approximately 90 days. On the call today is Gartner's Chief Executive Officer, Gene Hall; and Chief Financial Officer, Craig Safian. Before beginning, please be aware that 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 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as in other filings with the SEC. I would encourage all of you to review the risk factors listed in these documents. The company undertakes no obligation to update any of its forward-looking statements. I will now turn the conference over to Gene Hall. Please go ahead, sir. Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Q3 2015 earnings call. While our business continues to deliver robust results with demand for our services being driven by the digital industrial economy, having completed the third quarter of the year, our underlying metrics are strong. We continued to capture the opportunity ahead of us with the successful execution of our proven strategy for growth. As I've done in the past, I'll review our key operating metrics on an FX-neutral basis since that's the best way to understand the overall health of our business. For the third quarter of 2015, we…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your first question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler of Baird. Please go ahead. Jeffrey P. Meuler - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Thank you. On the Research contract value growth, obviously, it continues to be broad-based growth, but there was a little bit of deceleration. Any pockets of weakness to call out, or what drove that? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Hey, Jeff, it's Gene. I wouldn't say it's pockets of weakness. I'd put it more in the category of noise. We had one country that I'll give you an example of that drove it. One of our countries was growing in the mid-30% year-over-year CV growth and it slowed to 20%. Another one – another region, larger than – both of these are large for us, was growing 40% and it slowed to 23%. And again I took those more as noise as opposed to there's some dramatic slowing. Jeffrey P. Meuler - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Got it, that's helpful. And then on Consulting, is the weakness relative to plan all concentrated in CO or was labor-based also below plan? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Hey, Jeff. It's Craig. So in the quarter, it was predominantly contract optimization. That said, we were a little bit below our forecast on labor-based. And essentially, our strategy around adding managing partners is to drive deep long-lasting large consulting relationships with our clients. In the third quarter, we actually had two very large programs come to an end. And normally we're able to reassign all those consultants that are working those long dense engagements. We had a little bit of a disruption here which impacted the labor-based revenue in the third quarter. That said, rolling forward, we had a really strong bookings quarter, and our backlog looks very strong for the labor-based business as well. So broadly speaking, contract optimization was the primary culprit. A little bit of softness on labor-based, but labor-based was more of a timing thing, and we feel good looking forward. Jeffrey P. Meuler - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Got it. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tim McHugh of William Blair & Co. Please proceed. Tim J. McHugh - William Blair & Co. LLC: Thanks. I guess first just on the margins. I guess, you talked about productivity continuing to be strong on the Research side, I guess, but the updated guidance for this year just at a midpoint, we're basically looking at margins down 10 basis points. And so, I guess, one is when do you or when should we start to see the productivity flow through to the margin line, I guess? And then secondarily, I guess, can you – I know you said it's seasonally stronger in the fourth quarter for margins, but the year-over-year improvement required is much better than you saw early in the year. So any timing factors, I guess, that give us reason to expect better margin improvement in the fourth quarter? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Sure, Tim. Good morning. On the first part of the question, the way that we look at it and the way to kind of think about it and model it through, we've seen a nice year-over-year improvements in productivity consistently for the last few quarters. That said, we're still growing head count at a faster rate than the productivity is turning into contract value growth. The reason we're doing that is because of that $58 billion market opportunity that we're going after. And so we're continuing to add head count to go after that market opportunity. That said, when we bring on lots of new people and more people in their first year, et cetera, and we've had discussions around first-year productivity is significantly lower than second year productivity, which is lower than what it looks…

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Anj Singh of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Mark Wallach - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hi. This is actually Mark Wallach in for Anj. Thanks for taking my question. So diving a little deeper into an earlier question on the sales force productivity growth decelerating slightly, though off a tougher comp; so just looking at year ago, head count growth was slower – a little slower than usual. So I think that that would be a tailwind to productivity growth this quarter; so just wondering if you could give us some of the puts and takes there. And I guess along those lines, how should we think about the potential headwind on productivity going forward from accelerating head count growth? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: So hey, Mark. On the productivity trend, again, down a little bit sequentially, but up nicely, up 5% on a year-over-year basis. And again, we look at it both ways. We actually think that year over year is a good way to look at it because it does take out some of the noise of movement and head count growth from quarter to quarter. So we're pleased with continued and consistent year-over-year improvements in sales productivity the way we measure it. In terms of the grow-overs and the tailwind or headwind or however you want to describe it, the way to think about it is as we tick up or tick down, and again, we're within 2 points. So we're talking about 14% growth and 16% growth on a 2,000-person basis. You're talking about the difference of roughly 40 people one way or the other. So it's not a huge swing, even though it…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik of Barclays. Please proceed.

Manav Shiv Patnaik - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Yes. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to touch on the acquisitions a bit. I mean it sounds like minimal impact to revenue and EBITDA, but the $196 million net of cash acquired price seems a little high. So I was just wondering if you could give us some color on the size of those assets individually. And also I think you mentioned that the incentive payments to the management of those guys over the years would be recognized as an acquisition expense and excludes amortization. I'm just wondering why, if that's just (40:27). Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Manav. So as you know, we've traditionally targeted companies that had at least $10 million in IT spending, and there's, we've estimated, 110,000 of those companies. There are tens of millions of smaller businesses. And these three businesses, two of which we acquired this quarter, in addition to Software Advice, those three businesses provide the same kind of services that we provide to larger companies to these tens of millions of smaller companies. And the reason we did these acquisitions obviously wasn't for this quarter or even next year. But we think over the next five years that this will be a great growth business for us. And it fits very well with what we do as a business, which is we've always, our specialty is advising clients on what products and services to buy and how to get the most out of their technology investments. I don't know if, Craig, you wanted to step in. Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: And, Manav, just on the accounting side of it, we had the same accounting treatment related to the Software Advice deal where there were what we'll call hold-backs for the management team that they have to earn by being onboard and contributing to the business over a couple-year period. When we structured the deals, they are akin to consideration. However, from a GAAP accounting perspective, we treat them as operating expense. And because it is really in our mind more or like consideration for the acquisition, that's why we normalize it out from an expense perspective on a go-forward basis.

Manav Shiv Patnaik - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then just to touch on, since most of your cash is now overseas, is there any inherent limitation there in terms of either buying domestic companies, or I guess you just have to use your revolver to do buybacks. I'm just wondering if we should think of that as a limitation by any means. Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yes, the overseas cash balance obviously cannot be utilized for every business initiative or shareholder enhancing initiative we want to undertake. That said, with the Nubera acquisition as an example, we were actually able to use that foreign cash to do the acquisition. On a go-forward basis, the combination of that cash overseas, the great free cash flow generation we have both here and overseas, plus the $646 million available on our current revolver, and on top of that we actually have a $500 million expansion feature in our credit facility. We feel like the combination of those three or four things allow us to be well-positioned to pursue whatever shareholder enhancing initiatives we want to.

Manav Shiv Patnaik - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

All right. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Toni Kaplan of Morgan Stanley. Please proceed. Toni M. Kaplan - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi, good morning. How are your discussions going with clients as they plan their 2016 budgets? And have you seen any change in tone as the year has gone on? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey. It's Gene. No, actually basically as clients are planning their 2016 budgets, they've been focused on the same issues. They've been focused on what we're calling bimodal IT, which is building up things for the digital economy at the same time keeping their existing business running. They're worried about cybersecurity and having to deal with cybersecurity. So those are the kinds of things that they're focused on, and it hasn't changed through the year. Toni M. Kaplan - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay, great. And just given the two new acquisitions in the small and medium-sized space, I'm just wondering if you could talk about the initial receptivity among clients in that area. Especially, you've had Software Advice for a little while now. So I just wanted to get your sense of how big the opportunity could be and just how the reaction is going to your bulking up in that area. Thanks. Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So the small companies have the same kind of problems with IT that big companies do. And these companies that we're targeting actually in general do not have an IT department. Things like think about a small funeral home or an electrician. An electrician has four or five electricians that work for them, or someone like that. There are huge opportunities for them to use IT in their business. And the changes in technology have made it so that there are more and more opportunities every day. Things like Amazon Web Services and all of the software tools that are available now, particularly open-source tools. So there's an explosion of innovation in software, particularly hosted software that applies to these small businesses. These small businesses, they're not experts in IT and they need help figuring out what's best for their particular business in their particular situation. And so the receptivity to – and that's what these three businesses we've bought do. And the clients love them because they need the help to figure out these tough IT decisions just like large companies, except they don't have an IT department. Toni M. Kaplan - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. And just lastly, is this more of – are these businesses more transactional than like a typical research subscription model that you have in a larger business? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes, they are more transactional as opposed to a subscription model. Toni M. Kaplan - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. The next question comes from the line of Peter Appert of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Hi, good morning. This is actually Steven (46:03) filling in for Peter Appert. I have a question in regards to the Events segment. The Events business has been a very strong performer in Q3 and for the past quarter. How big is the opportunity here, and what drives the continuing growth? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, it's Gene. So our Events business has been seeing enormous opportunity that we have in all of our Research business. Basically we have opportunities on two dimensions of our Events business. The first is to grow -the existing Events portfolio we have has lots of room for growth. We don't see any of the event types that we have today having any growth restrictions. In addition to that, there will be new events we can add as well. For example, over time I expect we are going to add more Symposium events around the world. And so we've got both growth from our existing events which we think is unconstrained for the foreseeable future, and then adding whole new events, particularly in geographies where we don't have all of the events today.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

I see. And in terms of the macro economy in Europe, it remains challenging. Can you elaborate what are you seeing in major markets? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So as I mentioned before, in every geography and every industry, we've had double digit growth again. And so even when the economic situation is tough, people have IT problems; IT is often one of the solutions to those problems. And we're the best source to go to. And so, we see robust growth in every geography and every industry around the world.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Okay, great. That's all I have. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much. Your next question comes from the line of Gary Bisbee of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Hey, guys. Good morning. A couple of questions, Craig, I'll start with something you said. I think I heard you saying new business was up 8%. Is that a bookings number? I don't remember, and if so, I don't remember you consistently providing that in the past. What's the context we should put around that? That's quite a bit below contract value growth. Is there something that that's indicative of? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Hey, Gary. No. It's actually something that we do provide generally each quarter. It's not the bookings number. It's actually exclusive of the renewal activity. So it's essentially the growth bookings that we have each quarter, and again, can vary from quarter to quarter a little bit in terms of how much we're actually renewing and how much we're actually selling in terms of growth. As you'd imagine, Q4, it tends to be by far our largest growth quarter. And we feel good where we are from a new business perspective, both for the quarter and on a year-to-date basis.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

So the way to think about that is 8% is the new bookings? Then you've got on the renewal base some pricing and likely some people buying more than they did a year ago. You add that all up, you get to 14%? Is that the right way to think about it? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Well, no. The 8% is actually it's a year-over-year growth measure. So it's not a proportion of the current year bookings. It's the year-over-year growth.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Okay, all right. And then just on events; having recently been at your event in Florida, it seems to be bigger and grander every year. Is there a risk with events like that that they just get too big for their own good? And I guess I ask from the perspective of if you had 9% growth in same-event attendees, but 22% revenue, I realize there's some pricing, but it seems like you're also getting outsized growth from the exhibitors. Is there some point at which the benefit to them declines as you jam more of them in there or raise the price? Or do you think we're not anywhere near that given the value you're providing to them? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, there's another factor going on, Gary, which is that we're shifting the mix to sell to more senior people. And so if you look at like the event you went to, the proportion of people that are CIOs there has been growing at a very high rate. And that's purposeful. That's by design. Symposium is targeted at CIOs and that level of leaders. And so we're increasing the mix of senior people. And as we target more senior people, the pricing is higher as well. We changed the event to be targeted at senior people. We invite more of them, and the pricing goes along with it. And so, it's not just the exhibitor piece. There's actually a mix shift going on where we've been targeting more senior people who, frankly, it's part of a broader strategy which they have decision-making – more decision-making authority in their organizations. And so they come to our event to understand Gartner. It's good for our entire business.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Got you, thanks. And then just a cleanup one on the FX; I know you've talked about 40% or 50% of revenue being overseas. But can you just give us an update? What's the general mix of euro and pound, which after next quarter are a lot less of the drag? But versus the Canadian dollar, EM and Aussie dollar, which really weaken quite a bit and probably remain a drag for several quarters into next year? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yes. So, Gary, we haven't got into real great detail there. What I'll tell you is euro and pound are by far the two largest exposures we have globally. But that said, we've got a great business in Canada, a great business in Australia and a great business in Brazil that have been growing consistently and rapidly over the last several years. And so while they're not nearly as big as the euro or pound, they are in that top five or six currency exposures for us. So they do have an impact, as you mentioned. I mean the euro and the pound, and maybe this is a little bit of a hopeful comment, have mostly stabilized for the most part. I mean the euro is still down 3%-ish from when we gave our initial guidance. But the Brazilian real is down 50% since we gave our initial guidance. So the good news is the two larger currencies have mostly stabilized. But these other currencies are big enough businesses for us that they do move the needle a little bit. We'll continue to focus in on how we're doing from an FX-neutral perspective, and provide all the transparency possible so that you can see what's actually happening underneath the covers. But you're right on the euro and pound perspective. It should look a little bit better on a reported basis rolling forward.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

But the right assumption probably at this point, given what you've told us, is there's likely to be a noticeable if not material drag in the first half of 2016, just based on these ones that have really started weakening recently. Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: On a reported basis, that is true. On an FX-neutral basis, we'd expect to continue the way we've been going.

Gary E. Bisbee - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Yes, understood. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Silber of BMO. Please go ahead.

Henry Chien - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst

Hey. Good morning. It's Henry Chien calling in for Jeff. I just had a question on the planned sales force increase. I don't know if you'd be able to quantify this at all. But I was curious to know how long, given the trends in sales force productivity and the gains you're seeing in enterprise contract value; I was just wondering if you might be able to give us a sense of when sales force trends, we should see an impact on revenue growth? Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: So, Henry, the way we think about it and again the contract value growth feeds the revenue growth. And so with our sales productivity gains, we're in that 14% to 15% revenue growth range. If you recall, go back several quarters, we had lower productivity and we were delivering 12%, 13% contract value growth. The gains we had last year and into this year have allowed us to be delivering 15% – 14% to 15% CV growth and 14% to 15% Research revenue growth. On a go-forward basis, as we stated, we are very focused on continuing to improve productivity and continuing to grow the sales force. The combination of those two things will convert into higher levels of contract value growth and then subsequently higher levels of Research revenue growth.

Henry Chien - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay, got it. I mean is there a lag time that is different from that we've seen in prior quarters, or is it... Craig W. Safian - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: No, the historical lag, if you will, between contract value conversion to revenue conversion is consistent with what we've always seen.

Henry Chien - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And how much of your sales force growth is related to growing the small-size to medium-size opportunity that you're seeing? Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, Henry, the businesses that we just acquired and Software Advice, we wouldn't include in that group. And so we handle those separately because they handle it in a different way. And so the sales force increase is, that we talked about, is in our traditional business where we're targeting those 110,000 companies. And within that, there are large, medium and smaller businesses but they're all above the size of the acquisitions. And directionally it's kind of the same split. We have – we're still investing in large companies. We're still investing in small companies and medium-sized companies in that original 110,000 base.

Henry Chien - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst

Got it. Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much indeed for your questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Gene Hall for the closing remarks. Eugene A. Hall - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I thank all of you for joining us today. To summarize the key points of today's call, we are doing great as a company and our underlying metrics are strong. We continue to invest to improve recruiting capability, training tools that drive sales productivity over time. We once again delivered double digit growth in every region across every client size and in every industry segment. We remain committed to enhancing shareholder value through investment in our business, strategic acquisitions, and share repurchases. And we're getting better, stronger, faster all the time. I expect to see robust growth for years to come. We look forward to updating you again on our next quarterly earnings call. Thanks for joining us today.