VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 9,900 ServiceNow, Inc. $NOW

Key Points

• The Virginia Retirement Systems acquired 9,900 shares of ServiceNow, Inc. valued at approximately $10.2 million during the second quarter.
• ServiceNow has received multiple price target upgrades from analysts, with the average target now at $1,121.37 and a broad consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."
• The company's earnings report showed a notable 22.4% year-over-year revenue increase and an earnings per share of $4.09, exceeding estimates by $0.52.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,900 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $10,178,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOW. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in ServiceNow in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,817,535,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted 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 acquiring an additional 877,875 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 840,731 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ServiceNow during the 1st quarter worth approximately $519,806,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of ServiceNow by 61.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,638,927 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,269,777,000 after acquiring an additional 626,623 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of ServiceNow in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,225.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $1,121.37.

ServiceNow Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NOW opened at $918.17 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $911.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $938.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $190.98 billion, a PE ratio of 115.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.92. ServiceNow, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $678.66 and a fifty-two week high of $1,198.09.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Vice Chairman Nicholas Tzitzon sold 1,719 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $866.45, for a total transaction of $1,489,427.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 3,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,599,350. This represents a 36.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Gina Mastantuono sold 1,762 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $866.45, for a total value of $1,526,684.90. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 12,228 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,594,950.60. The trade was a 12.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,737 shares of company stock worth $16,798,825 in the last three months. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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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