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ServiceNow (NOW) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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ServiceNow (NOW - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $576.70, moving +1.69% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.2%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of software that automates companies' technology operations had gained 3.08% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 1.57% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 3.28% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from NOW as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 28, 2021. On that day, NOW is projected to report earnings of $1.20 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 2.44%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.36 billion, up 26.76% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.50 per share and revenue of $5.72 billion. These totals would mark changes of +18.79% and +26.57%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for NOW. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.09% higher. NOW is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.

Digging into valuation, NOW currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 103.16. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 31.11, so we one might conclude that NOW is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that NOW has a PEG ratio of 3.71 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Computers - IT Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.82 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, putting it in the bottom 34% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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