Scotiabank Issues Pessimistic Forecast for ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Stock Price

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) had its price objective reduced by equities researchers at Scotiabank from $1,230.00 to $1,050.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector outperform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 26.49% from the stock’s current price.

NOW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of ServiceNow from $1,000.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Needham & Company LLC upped 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,432.00 to $1,426.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,210.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,100.31.

ServiceNow Price Performance

ServiceNow stock opened at $830.11 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $983.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $985.60. The company has a market capitalization of $171.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.03. ServiceNow has a 1 year low of $637.99 and a 1 year high of $1,198.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10.

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

ServiceNow declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

In other ServiceNow news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 3,649 shares in the company, valued at $3,370,654.28. The trade was a 44.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 455 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 have sold 20,351 shares of company stock valued at $20,050,076 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NOW. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in ServiceNow by 499,668.1% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,772,785 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,268,731,000 after buying an additional 4,771,830 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,603,360,000. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in ServiceNow by 216.6% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,367,875 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,206,178,000 after buying an additional 935,848 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in ServiceNow by 154,255.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 666,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $667,000 after buying an additional 666,383 shares during the period. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter worth approximately $682,468,000. 87.18% of the stock is currently 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.