First Foundation Advisors Acquires 728 Shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)

First Foundation Advisors raised its stake in shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 728 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in ServiceNow were worth $8,380,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Atala Financial Inc purchased a new position in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA bought a new position in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 725.0% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 33 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Noble Wealth Management PBC purchased a new stake in shares of ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 87.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on NOW shares. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $1,275.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com downgraded ServiceNow from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on ServiceNow in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,185.00 to $990.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $986.00 price objective on ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,079.10.

ServiceNow Price Performance

NOW stock opened at $803.43 on Thursday. ServiceNow, Inc. has a 12-month low of $637.99 and a 12-month high of $1,198.09. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $884.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $974.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $165.51 billion, a PE ratio of 117.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.08.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $3.67. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. As a group, research analysts predict that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current year.

ServiceNow declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $923.72, for a total value of $2,720,355.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,370,654.28. This represents a 44.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Gina Mastantuono sold 4,442 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $964.70, for a total value of $4,285,197.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 11,126 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,733,252.20. This represents a 28.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,351 shares of company stock valued at $20,050,076 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.