ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Trading Up 1.7% – What’s Next?

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) shares traded up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $1,026.97 and last traded at $1,021.03. 227,687 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 1,523,552 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1,004.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NOW. Truist Financial raised shares of ServiceNow from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $950.00 to $1,200.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,100.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of ServiceNow from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price target (up from $970.00) on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $1,300.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,062.50.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $884.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $974.97. 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 company has a market capitalization of $212.71 billion, a PE ratio of 150.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.97.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $4.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.78 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.09 billion. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. ServiceNow’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

In other ServiceNow news, Director Deborah Black sold 598 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $940.23, for a total value of $562,257.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 428 shares in the company, valued at $402,418.44. The trade was a 58.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Russell S. Elmer sold 62 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,023.00, for a total value of $63,426.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 4,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,431,636. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,674 shares of company stock worth $2,510,213 over the last three months. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 824,725 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $874,258,000 after acquiring an additional 12,533 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,802,000. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 33,154 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,147,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares in the last quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at about $10,071,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,878,900 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,232,339,000 after buying an additional 272,506 shares in the last quarter. 87.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.