Raymond James Initiates Coverage on ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)

Investment analysts at Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $1,200.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.54% from the stock’s previous close.

NOW has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $900.00 to $1,055.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Mizuho upped their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,070.00 to $1,210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,000.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup boosted their target price on ServiceNow from $1,068.00 to $1,071.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered ServiceNow from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ServiceNow currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,048.00.

ServiceNow Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE NOW opened at $1,105.56 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.75 billion, a PE ratio of 171.94, a PEG ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 0.99. ServiceNow has a twelve month low of $637.99 and a twelve month high of $1,157.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,029.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $893.49.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $3.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.46 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 16.03% and a net margin of 12.77%. ServiceNow’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.21 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that ServiceNow will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 353 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $924.96, for a total transaction of $326,510.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,799,853.92. This represents a 10.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Paul Edward Chamberlain sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,047.95, for a total value of $314,385.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,968,892.65. This represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,629 shares of company stock valued at $20,861,626 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ServiceNow

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 53.5% during the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 107,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $96,395,000 after purchasing an additional 37,550 shares during the last quarter. American Trust acquired a new position in ServiceNow in the 3rd quarter valued at $744,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in ServiceNow by 104.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 48,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,653,000 after buying an additional 24,945 shares during the last quarter. Blankinship & Foster LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the 3rd quarter worth $1,881,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the third quarter valued at about $3,191,000. 87.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.