Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 6,465,436 ServiceNow, Inc. $NOW

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 6,465,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $641,888,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in ServiceNow during the second quarter worth about $9,536,615,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in ServiceNow by 406.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 47,896,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,337,280,000 after purchasing an additional 38,441,898 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in ServiceNow by 371.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,395,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,962,692,000 after purchasing an additional 25,517,218 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in ServiceNow by 404.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,512,428 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,591,425,000 after purchasing an additional 18,854,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 335.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,733,483 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,482,543,000 after buying an additional 17,514,679 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Paul Edward Chamberlain sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.60, for a total transaction of $188,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 46,690 shares in the company, valued at $5,864,264. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

Shares of NOW stock opened at $128.09 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $109.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70. ServiceNow, Inc. has a one year low of $81.24 and a one year high of $194.73. The firm has a market cap of $132.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.94.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information technology services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.04. ServiceNow had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 16.45%. The firm had revenue of $3.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NOW. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ServiceNow from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $160.00) on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on ServiceNow from $122.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $180.00 target price on ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “underweight” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, ServiceNow presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $144.24.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) is a cloud computing company that builds enterprise software to manage digital workflows and automate business processes. Its offerings are designed to replace manual work and legacy systems with cloud-based, service-oriented applications that support IT operations, customer service, human resources, security response and other enterprise functions.

The company’s flagship product family is the Now Platform, a suite of subscription software and platform services that includes IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), IT Business Management (ITBM), Customer Service Management (CSM), HR Service Delivery, Security Operations and Asset Management.