ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Price Target Lowered to $881.00 at Morgan Stanley

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $960.00 to $881.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on NOW. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1,275.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded ServiceNow from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $716.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,057.17.

ServiceNow Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NOW stock opened at $796.62 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $862.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $971.02. ServiceNow has a 1-year low of $637.99 and a 1-year high of $1,198.09. The company has a market cap of $164.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts expect that ServiceNow will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 1,263 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,019.10, for a total transaction of $1,287,123.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,595 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,564.50. This represents a 32.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 2,945 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at $3,370,654.28. This represents a 44.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,896 shares of company stock worth $19,568,441 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ServiceNow

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in ServiceNow by 87,501.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,689,361 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,141,108,000 after purchasing an additional 2,686,291 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,603,360,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of ServiceNow by 154,255.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 666,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after buying an additional 666,383 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow in the fourth quarter worth about $682,468,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in ServiceNow by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,955,924 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,434,235,000 after acquiring an additional 509,467 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.