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

Craig Safian: Good morning, Toni. Yes, I mean, the way to think about the bridge from 2022 to 2023 is consistent with the way we’ve been talking about it for the last several quarters. And so, the biggest piece of it is the annualization of all the hiring we did in 2022 and obviously, paying the full load for all those new associates over the course of 2023. So that’s by far the biggest piece of it. A lot of our hiring was back-end loaded or second-half loaded, I should say. And so, obviously, there’s a pretty significant uplift in the annual cost as we annualize all of those individuals. There’s an element of T&E, to your point. And so, we’re — fourth quarter was kind of in line with where we expected to be. But obviously, the first part of 2022, we were still mostly in lockdown and not traveling.

And so, there are incremental T&E expense that we expect in 2023, as we get to kind of the new normal of travel post-pandemic. And there’s a few other nits here and there, but the two primary ones are really the annualization of the headcount and a little bit more on the T&E side.

Toni Kaplan: Okay. Great. And wanted to ask about free cash flow. I know you mentioned a couple of things in the prepared remarks, but maybe just talk about why the free cash flow came in below the guidance and then the €˜23 guidance also looked a little bit lighter than I was thinking? So any puts and takes on free cash flow would be helpful. Thanks.

Craig Safian: Yes, absolutely. So in 2022, the bulk of the story is, what, I discussed in my prepared remarks, which is just some invoicing delays coming out as a result of the Hurricane. And we thought we would be able to get all caught up on that in 2022 and a bunch of it did slip into 2023. And actually, through the end of January, we actually are all caught up on that. So we feel good about both the €˜22 finish and getting that all behind us. In terms of 2023, obviously, there can be a lot of variability to the free cash flow numbers. If you look at it on the surface from the guidance, the free cash flow margin is in line with what we’d expect free cash flow as a percent of EBITDA is roughly where we’d expect and the free cash flow conversion as a percent of GAAP net income is in the range as well.

And so, I think the free cash flow guidance and the free cash flow expectation is sort of in line with the business performance. I do think there are a couple of things impacting €˜23 that potentially put it a little bit below your expectations, probably, most notably cash taxes. So because of all that extra earnings in 2022, we have more to pay in taxes, and that’s obviously reflected into 2023 free cash flow guidance as well.

Toni Kaplan: Perfect. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Andrew Nicholas from William Blair. Your line is open.

Andrew Nicholas: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First one I wanted to ask was just on conferences. I think you said in your prepared remarks that there would be 47 conferences in €˜23, or at least that’s what’s planned at this point and all in-person. Obviously, a decent bit lower than where you were running pre-pandemic. So just looking for an update in terms of strategy there. I know you’ve talked about adding conferences to different functional lines over the course of the next couple of years. Where does kind of €˜23 sit relative to your ultimate goal on conferences? And is there the potential for additional destination conferences to be added as we move through the year?