ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) to Repurchase $3.00 billion in Outstanding Stock

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on NOW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of ServiceNow from $1,020.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of ServiceNow from $1,071.00 to $1,432.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp cut shares of ServiceNow from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,100.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,116.14.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

ServiceNow stock traded down $25.53 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $1,144.86. The stock had a trading volume of 2,546,470 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,398,812. ServiceNow has a 12 month low of $637.99 and a 12 month high of $1,198.09. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $1,082.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $950.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $235.84 billion, a PE ratio of 178.05, a P/E/G ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.99.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.67 by ($1.74). ServiceNow had a return on equity of 16.03% and a net margin of 12.77%. As a group, research analysts predict that ServiceNow will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ServiceNow news, insider Jacqueline P. Canney sold 66 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,048.29, for a total transaction of $69,187.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,027 shares in the company, valued at $3,173,173.83. This trade represents a 2.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 12,271 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $997.67, for a total transaction of $12,242,408.57. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,588,953.65. The trade was a 82.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,731 shares of company stock worth $21,016,751 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.25% 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.