ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-four have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $1,129.93.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NOW. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on ServiceNow from $900.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $906.00 to $913.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on ServiceNow from $980.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In other ServiceNow news, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 455 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,058.54, for a total value of $481,635.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,204,200.58. This trade represents a 13.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 12,271 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $997.67, for a total transaction of $12,242,408.57. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,588,953.65. This trade represents a 82.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 20,731 shares of company stock valued at $21,016,751. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD boosted its position in ServiceNow by 57.0% during the third quarter. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD now owns 2,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,416,000 after acquiring an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,802,000. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC raised its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 39.4% in the 3rd quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 488 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 36.4% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,565,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the period. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the 4th quarter worth approximately $105,090,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

ServiceNow Price Performance

ServiceNow stock opened at $1,021.99 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $1,083.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $957.36. ServiceNow has a one year low of $637.99 and a one year high of $1,198.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $210.53 billion, a PE ratio of 149.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 0.99.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $3.67. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. As a group, research analysts expect that ServiceNow will post 8.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

ServiceNow Company Profile

ServiceNow, Inc provides end to-end intelligent workflow automation platform solutions for digital businesses in the North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates the Now platform for end-to-end digital transformation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, process mining, performance analytics, and collaboration and development tools.