Arete Research Upgrades ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) to “Hold”

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) was upgraded by research analysts at Arete Research to a “hold” rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley set a $1,315.00 price objective on ServiceNow and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $1,150.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,075.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research cut ServiceNow from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,149.67.

ServiceNow Stock Down 0.3%

ServiceNow stock traded down $2.32 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $865.17. 1,305,105 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,333,324. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $873.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $925.99. The company has a market cap of $179.96 billion, a PE ratio of 104.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.97. ServiceNow has a fifty-two week low of $678.66 and a fifty-two week high of $1,198.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

ServiceNow shares are going to split on Thursday, December 18th. The 5-1 split was recently announced. The newly minted shares will be payable to shareholders after the market closes on Wednesday, December 17th.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information technology services provider reported $4.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.21 by $0.61. ServiceNow had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 18.74%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that ServiceNow will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ServiceNow news, Director Paul Edward Chamberlain sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $808.00, for a total transaction of $242,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,586 shares in the company, valued at $7,745,488. This represents a 3.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 94 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $827.08, for a total value of $77,745.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 3,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,503,571.16. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 3,062 shares of company stock worth $2,533,585 in the last quarter. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NOW. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow during the first quarter worth about $382,000. Corient IA LLC bought a new stake in ServiceNow during the first quarter valued at approximately $796,000. Cascade Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in ServiceNow by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $359,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 22.2% in the 2nd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 533 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ethic Inc. raised its position in shares of ServiceNow by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 25,496 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,067,000 after buying an additional 397 shares in 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.