ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Sees Strong Trading Volume Following Analyst Upgrade

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Thursday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $814.00 to $830.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Approximately 1,080,854 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the previous session’s volume of 1,183,331 shares.The stock last traded at $702.41 and had previously closed at $746.29.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group cut their target price on ServiceNow from $920.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $750.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $820.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on ServiceNow in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $1,000.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on ServiceNow from $896.00 to $906.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ServiceNow currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $782.85.

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

In related news, insider Paul John Smith sold 1,180 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $767.12, for a total value of $905,201.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,067,831.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Paul John Smith sold 1,180 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $767.12, for a total value of $905,201.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,067,831.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 5,030 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $753.08, for a total transaction of $3,787,992.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,177 shares in the company, valued at $12,935,655.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,164 shares of company stock worth $9,940,303 in the last ninety days. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServiceNow

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow during the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $459,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 672.7% in the 3rd quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,505,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC increased its stake in ServiceNow by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC now owns 800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

ServiceNow Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $147.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $761.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $706.74.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The information technology services provider reported $3.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $2.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. ServiceNow had a net margin of 19.30% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 6.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.