ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Shares Up 1.5% – Should You Buy?

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) shares were up 1.5% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $819.61 and last traded at $812.40. Approximately 1,452,170 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 11% from the average daily volume of 1,640,553 shares. The stock had previously closed at $800.46.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NOW. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,025.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Raymond James Financial increased their target price on ServiceNow from $1,000.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. DA Davidson set a $1,250.00 price target on ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $1,150.00 price objective on ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,200.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,159.66.

ServiceNow Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $905.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $945.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $168.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.23, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.94.

Shares of ServiceNow are set to split on the morning of Friday, December 5th. The 5-1 split was announced on Wednesday, October 29th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Thursday, December 4th.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information technology services provider reported $4.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.21 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 19.23% and a net margin of 13.66%.The firm’s revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In related news, Director Anita M. Sands sold 1,097 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $915.11, for a total value of $1,003,875.67. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at $8,516,928.77. This trade represents a 10.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul Fipps sold 305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $817.55, for a total transaction of $249,352.75. Following the transaction, the insider owned 541 shares in the company, valued at $442,294.55. The trade was a 36.05% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 8,587 shares of company stock worth $7,730,037 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of ServiceNow

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of ServiceNow in the second quarter valued at about $2,589,235,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in ServiceNow in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,817,535,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in ServiceNow by 131.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,480,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,706,000 after buying an additional 840,731 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter worth approximately $519,806,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in ServiceNow by 61.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,638,927 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,269,777,000 after buying an additional 626,623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.