Empirical Finance LLC Trims Stock Holdings in ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)

Empirical Finance LLC lowered its position in shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,582 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 62 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in ServiceNow were worth $6,978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in ServiceNow during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in ServiceNow by 77.3% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 39 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. raised its stake in ServiceNow by 46.7% during the third quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 44 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in ServiceNow during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NOW opened at $1,007.79 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $207.61 billion, a PE ratio of 147.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,080.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $963.81. ServiceNow, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $637.99 and a fifty-two week high of $1,198.09.

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

ServiceNow announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In other news, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 12,271 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $997.67, for a total value of $12,242,408.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,595 shares in the company, valued at $2,588,953.65. This represents a 82.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 66 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,048.29, for a total value of $69,187.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,173,173.83. The trade was a 2.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,702 shares of company stock valued at $20,965,306 in the last three months. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NOW. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on ServiceNow from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on ServiceNow from $1,200.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on ServiceNow from $906.00 to $913.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,210.00 price target on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on ServiceNow in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $1,230.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,129.72.

ServiceNow 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.