ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Stock Price Up 3.2% – Time to Buy?

Shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) traded up 3.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $950.88 and last traded at $952.05. 577,141 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 1,630,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $922.29.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NOW has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of ServiceNow from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $716.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $1,300.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,129.72.

ServiceNow Price Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1,046.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $981.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market cap of $193.15 billion, a PE ratio of 137.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.99.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. Research analysts expect that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Gina Mastantuono sold 4,442 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $964.70, for a total transaction of $4,285,197.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,126 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,733,252.20. This represents a 28.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 1,263 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,019.10, for a total value of $1,287,123.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,595 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,644,564.50. This represents a 32.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,706 shares of company stock valued at $17,644,106 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ServiceNow

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in ServiceNow by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,199,258 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,353,517,000 after buying an additional 190,430 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in ServiceNow by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,077,547 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,118,867,000 after buying an additional 226,023 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in ServiceNow by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,955,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,434,235,000 after purchasing an additional 509,467 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in ServiceNow by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,878,900 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,232,339,000 after purchasing an additional 272,506 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 499,668.1% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,772,785 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,268,731,000 after buying an additional 4,771,830 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.