Insight Q1 sales flat but beat expectations as reseller announces M&A pause
New CEO Jack Azagury lays down his priorities in his first earnings call at the helm
Insight Enterprises’ first quarter financial results have surpassed analyst expectations, driven by its strategic shift towards high-margin cloud and services offerings.
The NASDAQ-listed firm’s stock surged 8.67 per cent in pre-market trading following the results announcement.
Net sales remained relatively flat with only one per cent growth to $2.1bn, beating expectations slightly, driven by hardware and services, partially offset by a decrease in on-prem software as clients shift to cloud-delivered software.
Sales in the reseller’s products arm fell two per cent to $1.7bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.
While its services business climbed 17 per cent to $461m.
Cloud gross profit was $139m, an increase of 35 per cent with growth in both SaaS and infrastructure-as-a-service, as well as security software from the Sekuro acquisition in Australia.
Looking at the results more closely, EMEA net sales grew nine per cent to $372m.
Products were also up six per cent to $281m, while services net sales in EMEA leapt 20 per cent to $91m.
Speaking on his first earnings call at the helm, Insight president and CEO Jack Azagury (pictured) grouped his three priorities: staying the course on its strategy and accelerating its pivot, focus and execution, and capital allocation.
“Our strategy is to help mid-market companies make sense of the complex, fragmented, and rapidly evolving technology landscape, integrate their hardware, software, and their cloud landscape with the right technology services to get from idea to result and outcomes at speed,” he told listeners.
“My plan is to accelerate our pivot to be the leading solution integrator for the age of AI with a core focus on the mid-market.”
Turning to his second priority, Azagury points to focus and execution to drive greater consistency, accountability, and operational excellence.
“This is going to be a top priority that will include accelerating and better executing the integration of the acquisitions we have made over the past several years, investing in the solutions and offerings we provide our clients, leveraging AI to drive operational efficiency and effectiveness and growth, and further leveraging our offshore talent.”
His third and final priority is to redefine Insight’s capital allocation priorities i.e. hitting the pause button on M&A.
“We will pause M&A activity for at least the remainder of 2026. As I mentioned, our focus will be on strengthening our organic business and more closely integrating and leveraging the great acquisitions we have made.
“Our capital allocation priority will be to execute the remaining $224m share repurchase authorisation this year.
“At its current levels, we believe Insight stock presents significant value and is the best use of our capital. This will take our total share repurchases for the year to $299m. In short, I love our hand at Insight. We had a solid start to the year. We have a meaningful opportunity ahead as we focus on execution, and I look to build on our first quarter performance.”