Jefferies Financial Group Lowers ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Price Target to $1,250.00

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) had its price target lowered by Jefferies Financial Group from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ServiceNow from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $1,300.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $900.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered ServiceNow from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $900.00 to $960.00 in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ServiceNow has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,129.93.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NYSE:NOW opened at $1,011.67 on Thursday. ServiceNow has a 52 week low of $637.99 and a 52 week high of $1,198.09. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,085.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $952.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $208.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 148.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 0.99.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.67 by ($1.74). ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.56% and a net margin of 12.97%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 8.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback 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 buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In related news, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 455 shares of ServiceNow 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 value of $481,635.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,027 shares in the company, valued at $3,204,200.58. The trade was a 13.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Jeffrey A. Miller sold 2,879 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,019.12, for a total transaction of $2,934,046.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 42,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,740,630.40. This represents a 6.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 20,731 shares of company stock worth $21,016,751. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC raised its stake in ServiceNow by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $527,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in ServiceNow by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 459 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $487,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC grew its position in ServiceNow by 1.0% during the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,146 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the period. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. increased its stake in ServiceNow by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 2,622 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,779,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Affirmative Financial Network raised its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $801,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares during the period. 87.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.