ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $975.00 to $1,060.00. The stock had previously closed at $812.70, but opened at $900.31. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. ServiceNow shares last traded at $928.96, with a volume of 2,094,423 shares trading hands.

NOW has been the subject of several other reports. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of ServiceNow from $1,100.00 to $950.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $1,048.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Thursday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Friday, March 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on ServiceNow from $1,210.00 to $1,100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twenty-nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,032.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ServiceNow news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $923.72, for a total transaction of $2,720,355.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,370,654.28. The trade was a 44.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 1,263 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,019.10, for a total value of $1,287,123.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,644,564.50. The trade was a 32.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,250 shares of company stock worth $19,853,273 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in ServiceNow by 87,501.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,689,361 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,141,108,000 after buying an additional 2,686,291 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,603,360,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 154,255.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 666,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 666,383 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in ServiceNow during the 4th quarter worth approximately $682,468,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in ServiceNow by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,955,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,434,235,000 after purchasing an additional 509,467 shares in the last quarter. 87.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ServiceNow Trading Up 15.6 %

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $839.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $967.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market cap of $194.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 137.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.08.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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