ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW - Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $975.00 to $1,060.00. The stock had previously closed at $812.70, but opened at $900.31. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. ServiceNow shares last traded at $928.96, with a volume of 2,094,423 shares.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on NOW. Scotiabank increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,075.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of ServiceNow from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,280.00 to $1,025.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $716.00 to $724.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $1,032.94.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In other ServiceNow news, CFO Gina Mastantuono sold 4,442 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 11,126 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,733,252.20. The trade was a 28.53 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $923.72, for a total transaction of $2,720,355.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,649 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,370,654.28. The trade was a 44.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,250 shares of company stock worth $19,853,273. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in ServiceNow by 9.3% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,367 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,681,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd lifted its position in shares of ServiceNow by 58.6% during the 1st quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 1,083 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $862,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Smith Salley Wealth Management bought a new stake in ServiceNow in the first quarter valued at $1,811,000. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in ServiceNow by 14.2% during the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,062,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.18% of the company's stock.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $838.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $967.51. The company has a market capitalization of $195.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 138.52, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.08.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67. ServiceNow had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 17.11%. Equities analysts forecast that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current year.

ServiceNow declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.