Sarasin & Partners LLP Grows Position in ServiceNow, Inc. $NOW

Key Points

• Sarasin & Partners LLP significantly increased its stake in ServiceNow, Inc. by 101.3%, acquiring a total of 150,621 shares valued at approximately $154.85 million, ranking it as their 27th largest holding.
• Several hedge funds have also boosted their positions in ServiceNow, with notable increases from GAMMA Investing LLC and OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.
• ServiceNow has received multiple upgrades from analysts, with BMO Capital Markets and DA Davidson raising their price targets to $1,160.00 and $1,250.00 respectively, reflecting a consensus price target of $1,115.20.

Sarasin & Partners LLP increased its position in shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW - Free Report) by 101.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 150,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 75,789 shares during the quarter. ServiceNow comprises 1.5% of Sarasin & Partners LLP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP owned about 0.07% of ServiceNow worth $154,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NOW. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow during the first quarter worth about $1,817,535,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 1,586.5% during the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 933,209 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $742,965,000 after buying an additional 877,875 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ServiceNow by 131.4% during the first 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 buying an additional 840,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of ServiceNow during the first quarter worth about $519,806,000. 87.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on NOW. Erste Group Bank reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,100.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $1,150.00 target price (up previously from $1,100.00) on shares of ServiceNow in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $1,115.20.

Insider Transactions at ServiceNow

In other news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 1,719 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $866.45, for a total value of $1,489,427.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 3,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,599,350. The trade was a 36.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 5,825 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $916.63, for a total transaction of $5,339,369.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,614 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,062,590.82. This represents a 46.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,976 shares of company stock worth $17,049,775 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.38% of the company's stock.

ServiceNow Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of ServiceNow stock opened at $932.28 on Wednesday. ServiceNow, Inc. has a 1 year low of $678.66 and a 1 year high of $1,198.09. The company has a market capitalization of $193.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $923.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $922.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.57 by $0.52. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 18.04% and a net margin of 13.78%.The company had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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