Wall Street Zen Downgrades ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) to Hold

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on ServiceNow from $1,160.00 to $1,150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,093.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1,120.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $724.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,159.66.

ServiceNow Stock Down 1.8%

NOW stock opened at $918.22 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $922.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $946.81. The company has a market cap of $190.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.92. ServiceNow has a twelve month low of $678.66 and a twelve month high of $1,198.09.

ServiceNow shares are scheduled to split before the market opens on Friday, December 5th. The 5-1 split was announced on Wednesday, October 29th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the market closes on Thursday, December 4th.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information technology services provider reported $4.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.21 by $0.61. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 19.23% and a net margin of 13.66%.The business’s revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul Fipps sold 1,452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $895.05, for a total value of $1,299,612.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 457 shares in the company, valued at $409,037.85. The trade was a 76.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Anita M. Sands sold 1,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $915.11, for a total value of $1,003,875.67. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,516,928.77. This trade represents a 10.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 17,980 shares of company stock worth $16,049,017 over the last three months. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServiceNow

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,589,235,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter valued at $1,817,535,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its holdings in ServiceNow by 1,586.5% in the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 933,209 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $742,965,000 after acquiring an additional 877,875 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in ServiceNow by 131.4% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,480,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,706,000 after acquiring an additional 840,731 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter valued at $519,806,000. 87.18% of the stock is 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.