ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

NOW has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,075.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $1,200.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,160.00 to $1,150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho set a $1,150.00 target price on ServiceNow in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, ServiceNow currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,159.66.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NYSE:NOW opened at $816.01 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $900.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $942.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. ServiceNow has a twelve month low of $678.66 and a twelve month high of $1,198.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.67, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.94.

Shares of ServiceNow are set to split on the morning of Friday, December 5th. The 5-1 split was announced on Wednesday, October 29th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Thursday, December 4th.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ServiceNow news, General Counsel Russell S. Elmer sold 81 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $827.08, for a total transaction of $66,993.48. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 4,332 shares in the company, valued at $3,582,910.56. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kevin Thomas Mcbride sold 280 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $842.48, for a total value of $235,894.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,054 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,257,893.92. This represents a 5.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,587 shares of company stock worth $7,730,037. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Opes Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in ServiceNow by 3.5% in the third quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 507 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $467,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 90.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 120,720 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $111,096,000 after purchasing an additional 57,489 shares during the period. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in shares of ServiceNow in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,380,000. Oarsman Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $544,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management grew its position in shares of ServiceNow by 66.7% during the 3rd quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 250 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 87.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.