JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Positive Forecast for ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Stock Price

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) had its price objective increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $950.00 to $1,250.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank initiated coverage on ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $1,230.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on ServiceNow from $1,045.00 to $1,210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of ServiceNow from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James started coverage on ServiceNow in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $1,200.00 price target for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,129.93.

ServiceNow Price Performance

NOW opened at $1,020.17 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $1,084.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $952.71. The firm has a market cap of $210.16 billion, a PE ratio of 149.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.99. ServiceNow has a 1 year low of $637.99 and a 1 year high of $1,198.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $3.67. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.56% and a net margin of 12.97%. Sell-side analysts predict that ServiceNow will post 8.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 12,271 shares of the company’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 represents a 82.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Tzitzon sold 313 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,064.60, for a total value of $333,219.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,884,725.40. This trade represents a 7.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,731 shares of company stock valued at $21,016,751 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NOW. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in ServiceNow during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 77.3% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 39 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its stake in ServiceNow by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 44 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. 87.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ServiceNow

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.