Essex Financial Services Inc. Sells 24 Shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)

Essex Financial Services Inc. cut its holdings in shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 24 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in ServiceNow were worth $333,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD boosted its position in shares of ServiceNow by 57.0% during the third quarter. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD now owns 2,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,416,000 after buying an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of ServiceNow during the fourth quarter valued at $48,802,000. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of ServiceNow by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 33,154 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,147,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares during the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC boosted its position in shares of ServiceNow by 39.4% during the third quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 488 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of ServiceNow by 36.4% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,565,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. 87.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO William R. Mcdermott sold 12,271 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $997.67, for a total value of $12,242,408.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,595 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,588,953.65. The trade was a 82.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Larry Quinlan sold 415 shares of ServiceNow stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.46, for a total value of $419,340.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,335,828.12. This trade represents a 23.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,257 shares of company stock valued at $23,579,376 in the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ServiceNow Stock Performance

NYSE:NOW opened at $989.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. ServiceNow, Inc. has a 1 year low of $637.99 and a 1 year high of $1,198.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,075.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $969.56. The company has a market cap of $203.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 144.90, a PEG ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.99.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67. ServiceNow had a return on equity of 17.11% and a net margin of 12.97%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ServiceNow, Inc. will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ServiceNow declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NOW has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on ServiceNow from $1,050.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on ServiceNow from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $1,000.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on ServiceNow from $950.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ServiceNow presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,129.72.

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.