William Blair Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at William Blair in a note issued to investors on Friday,RTT News reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on NOW. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on ServiceNow from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $1,300.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $716.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,129.72.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NOW opened at $850.54 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $175.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 124.53, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,017.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $984.89. ServiceNow has a 1-year low of $637.99 and a 1-year high of $1,198.09.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Russell S. Elmer sold 336 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,017.55, for a total transaction of $341,896.80. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 4,332 shares in the company, valued at $4,408,026.60. This trade represents a 7.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 455 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,058.54, for a total value of $481,635.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,204,200.58. This trade represents a 13.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,351 shares of company stock worth $20,050,076 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServiceNow

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Atala Financial Inc acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the third quarter worth about $30,000. 87.18% of the stock is currently 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.