ServiceNow Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:NOW)

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors acquired 14,918 call options on the company. This is an increase of 53% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,765 call options.

ServiceNow Price Performance

Shares of NOW opened at $1,046.03 on Friday. ServiceNow has a fifty-two week low of $678.66 and a fifty-two week high of $1,198.09. The company has a market capitalization of $216.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 142.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,003.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $963.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $4.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.78 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.09 billion. ServiceNow had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 17.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that ServiceNow will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on ServiceNow from $1,250.00 to $1,025.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $975.00 to $1,050.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Mizuho raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,100.00 price objective (up from $970.00) on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,100.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, ServiceNow currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,068.23.

Insider Activity at ServiceNow

In related news, Director Deborah Black sold 598 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $940.23, for a total transaction of $562,257.54. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 428 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,418.44. This trade represents a 58.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 1,171 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,020.00, for a total value of $1,194,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,060,000. This trade represents a 28.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,716 shares of company stock worth $6,611,245 in the last quarter. 0.38% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ServiceNow

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 87,501.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,689,361 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,141,108,000 after purchasing an additional 2,686,291 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,603,360,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,817,535,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 1,586.5% during the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 933,209 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $742,965,000 after purchasing an additional 877,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 131.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,480,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,178,706,000 after purchasing an additional 840,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.18% of the company’s stock.

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.