ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Trading 2.2% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)’s stock price shot up 2.2% during trading on Friday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $814.00 to $830.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. ServiceNow traded as high as $734.71 and last traded at $731.83. 436,978 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 1,203,806 shares. The stock had previously closed at $716.25.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on NOW. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on ServiceNow from $800.00 to $910.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $825.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $765.00 to $870.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Mizuho raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $750.00 to $820.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ServiceNow currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $782.85.

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

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

ServiceNow Trading Up 1.8 %

The company has a market cap of $149.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.72 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $760.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $706.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The information technology services provider reported $3.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 20.34% and a return on equity of 14.00%. ServiceNow’s quarterly revenue was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 6.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.