ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Earns “Market Outperform” Rating from JMP Securities

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating reissued by equities research analysts at JMP Securities in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $1,300.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock. JMP Securities’ price target suggests a potential upside of 28.85% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on ServiceNow from $900.00 to $990.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,070.00 to $1,210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of ServiceNow from $1,000.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of ServiceNow from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,117.86.

ServiceNow Price Performance

NYSE:NOW opened at $1,008.93 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1,085.21 and a 200-day moving average of $952.30. The company has a market capitalization of $207.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.12, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.99. ServiceNow has a 52 week low of $637.99 and a 52 week high of $1,198.09.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.67 by ($1.74). ServiceNow had a return on equity of 16.03% and a net margin of 12.77%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its board has authorized 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ServiceNow news, Director Jeffrey A. Miller sold 2,879 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,019.12, for a total transaction of $2,934,046.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 42,920 shares in the company, valued at $43,740,630.40. This represents a 6.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 66 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,048.29, for a total transaction of $69,187.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,173,173.83. This trade represents a 2.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,731 shares of company stock worth $21,016,751 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ServiceNow

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NOW. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in ServiceNow by 499,668.1% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,772,785 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,268,731,000 after purchasing an additional 4,771,830 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in ServiceNow by 89,137.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,185,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,059,912,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,739 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 216.6% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,367,875 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,206,178,000 after acquiring an additional 935,848 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of ServiceNow by 24.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,169,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,834,797,000 after purchasing an additional 615,797 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in ServiceNow by 9.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,606,394 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,014,302,000 after buying an additional 502,845 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

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.