What happened
Shares of Gartner (IT 0.76%) are climbing this morning after the company reported its fourth-quarter results, which were ahead of analysts' consensus earnings and revenue estimates.
The tech stock surged as much as 14% this morning and was up by 10.3% as of 11:31 a.m. EST.
So what
Gartner's adjusted earnings per share of $1.59 smashed Wall Street's expectation of $0.82 per share. The research and advisory company reported sales of $1.1 billion, which was down 8% year over year, but it was good enough to narrowly beat the Street's estimate of $1.07 billion for the quarter.
Image source: Getty Images.
The company's CEO, Gene Hall, said in a press release that "Gartner delivered strong results in 2020 despite a challenging economic environment" and that the company is "well-positioned for 2021 and to drive both double digit top-line growth and margin expansion in the years beyond."
For the full year 2020, Gartner's sales of $4.1 billion were down just 3% from 2019 and adjusted earnings per share were up 25% to $4.89.
Now what
Gartner's management issued guidance for the full year 2021 and estimated that adjusted earnings per share will fall 16% to $4.10. The company estimates that total revenue will increase modestly to $4.36 billion, an increase of 6% from 2020.
With today's share price spike, Gartner's stock is up nearly 22% over the past 12 months.
