ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $900.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 20.58% from the company’s previous close.

NOW has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $840.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $825.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on ServiceNow from $750.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Citigroup raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $896.00 to $906.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on ServiceNow from $850.00 to $830.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $779.63.

ServiceNow Price Performance

NOW stock opened at $746.39 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $153.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.75, a PEG ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $761.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $706.74. ServiceNow has a 12-month low of $427.68 and a 12-month high of $815.32.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The information technology services provider reported $3.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $2.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 19.30%. The company’s revenue was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that ServiceNow will post 6.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other ServiceNow news, insider Paul John Smith sold 1,180 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $767.12, for a total value of $905,201.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,067,831.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 5,030 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $753.08, for a total value of $3,787,992.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,177 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,935,655.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul John Smith sold 1,180 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $767.12, for a total transaction of $905,201.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,067,831.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,164 shares of company stock worth $9,940,303 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ServiceNow

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NOW. Sandbox Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in ServiceNow by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Sandbox Financial Partners LLC now owns 835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $590,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 300,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $212,033,000 after purchasing an additional 49,631 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in ServiceNow by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 331,406 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $234,135,000 after purchasing an additional 18,442 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in ServiceNow by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 25,726 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,175,000 after purchasing an additional 3,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of ServiceNow by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 70,150 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $49,560,000 after buying an additional 3,154 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

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.