Lighthouse’s August webinar discusses recent changes at Gartner. As this chart shows, Gartner’s stock has underperformed NASDAQ for most of the last year. But over the last month the firm’s shares have soared 25% (by an odd coincidence, most of this growth was prior to the release of the firm’s H2 results on July 30, when the price peaked).
Carter jokingly dismissed Gartner’s continuing rise as “boring“, but there are a few important shifts in the firm’s tactics. In 2008 Gartner has exceeded Wall Street expectations by growing revenue and switching to zero growth in the sales force. The firm’s more modest goal for 2008 as a whole is to grow the sales force by at most ten percent, on contrast to 20% growth in the last three years.
The engine for the firm’s revenue growth remains research, where income rose 20%; consulting revenue continues to trail with 13% growth. While the firm continues to grow through price rises, the firm has now picked up a layer of new contracts which have been the engine for most of the research income growth this quarter.
As in each monthly interactive webinar, this discussion will give Lighthouse’s insight into developments of the firm. We’ll share our most recent into the firm’s research interests, customer base and international reach. We’ll also review the impact of this year’s changes on the firm, and the firm’s relative influence on end-users. To see the schedule, look our at our events listing.
