ASGN (NYSE:ASGN) vs. ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Head to Head Review

ASGN (NYSE:ASGN) and ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ASGN and ServiceNow”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ASGN	$4.10 billion	0.58	$175.20 million	$3.16	17.13
ServiceNow	$10.98 billion	17.39	$1.43 billion	$7.94	115.68

ServiceNow has higher revenue and earnings than ASGN. ASGN is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ServiceNow, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for ASGN and ServiceNow, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ASGN	2	3	2	0	2.00
ServiceNow	1	3	29	1	2.88

ASGN presently has a consensus target price of $61.67, suggesting a potential upside of 13.89%. ServiceNow has a consensus target price of $1,115.20, suggesting a potential upside of 21.42%. Given ServiceNow’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ServiceNow is more favorable than ASGN.

Profitability

This table compares ASGN and ServiceNow’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ASGN	3.50%	11.90%	5.98%
ServiceNow	13.78%	18.04%	8.81%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.4% of ASGN shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.2% of ServiceNow shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of ASGN shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of ServiceNow shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

ASGN has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ServiceNow has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ServiceNow beats ASGN on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ASGN

ASGN Incorporated engages in the provision of information technology (IT) services and solutions in the technology, digital, and creative fields for commercial and government sectors in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It operates through two segments: Commercial and Federal Government. The Commercial Segment provides consulting, creative digital marketing, and permanent placement services primarily to enterprise clients. This segment also offers workforce mobilization, modern enterprise, and digital innovation IT consulting services; and cloud, data and analytics, and digital transformation solutions. The Federal Government Segment provides mission-critical solutions to the department of defense, intelligence communities, and federal civilian agencies. This segment offers cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, application and IT modernization, and science and engineering solutions. The company was formerly known as On Assignment, Inc. and changed its name to ASGN Incorporated in April 2018. ASGN Incorporated was founded in 1985 and is based in Glen Allen, Virginia.

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. It also provides asset management, cloud observability, integrated risk management; information technology (IT) service management applications; IT service management product suite for enterprise's employees, customers, and partners; strategic portfolio management product suite; IT operations management product that connects a customer's physical and cloud-based IT infrastructure; IT asset management; and security operations that connects with internal and third party. In addition, the company offers integrated risk management product to manage risk and resilience; environmental, social and governance management product; human resources, legal, and workplace service delivery products; customer service management product; and field service management applications. Further, the company provides app engine product; automation engine; platform privacy and security product; and source-to-pay operations. It serves to government, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, IT services, technology, oil and gas, education, and consumer products through service providers and resale partners. The company was formerly known as Service-now.com and changed its name to ServiceNow, Inc. in May 2012. ServiceNow, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.