Legal & General Group Plc Invests $641.89 Million in ServiceNow, Inc. $NOW

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc acquired 6.47 million ServiceNow shares worth approximately $641.9 million, giving it a 0.63% stake. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 87.18% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a broadly positive outlook, with 36 Buy ratings and a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating. The average price target is $144.24.
• ServiceNow reported quarterly EPS of $0.90, exceeding estimates of $0.86, while revenue rose 24% year over year to $3.99 billion. Shares opened at $128.09, and a company director separately sold 1,500 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan.

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,465,436 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $641,888,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.63% of ServiceNow at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in ServiceNow in the second quarter valued at $9,536,615,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of ServiceNow by 406.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 38,441,898 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 371.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,395,663 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,962,692,000 after acquiring an additional 25,517,218 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of ServiceNow by 404.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 18,854,775 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of ServiceNow by 335.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 17,514,679 shares during the period. 87.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NOW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on ServiceNow from $122.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $134.00 target price (up from $132.00) on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of ServiceNow in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-six have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $144.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Paul Edward Chamberlain sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.60, for a total transaction of $188,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 46,690 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,864,264. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

ServiceNow Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NOW opened at $128.09 on Tuesday. ServiceNow, Inc. has a 52-week low of $81.24 and a 52-week high of $194.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm's fifty day moving average is $109.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.79. The stock has a market cap of $132.45 billion, a PE ratio of 80.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.94.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information technology services provider reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.93 billion. ServiceNow had a net margin of 11.34% and a return on equity of 16.45%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 24.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow Company Profile

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.

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This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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