ServiceNow’s (NOW) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $1,275.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on NOW. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,210.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of ServiceNow from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Friday, January 17th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $1,332.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ServiceNow currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,114.24.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NYSE:NOW opened at $810.27 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,006.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $985.52. The company has a market cap of $166.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. ServiceNow has a 52 week low of $637.99 and a 52 week high of $1,198.09.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $3.67. ServiceNow had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 17.11%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $923.72, for a total transaction of $2,720,355.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,370,654.28. This represents a 44.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,058.54, for a total transaction of $481,635.70. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,204,200.58. This represents a 13.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,351 shares of company stock valued at $20,050,076 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Atala Financial Inc acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the third quarter worth about $30,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA acquired a new position in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in ServiceNow by 725.0% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 33 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. 87.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.