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ServiceNow (NOW) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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ServiceNow (NOW - Free Report) closed at $622.27 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.69% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.19% loss on the day.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of software that automates companies' technology operations had lost 5.04% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 5.5%, while the S&P 500 lost 3.16%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from NOW as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, NOW is projected to report earnings of $1.39 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 14.88%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.48 billion, up 28.3% from the year-ago period.

NOW's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.82 per share and revenue of $5.83 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +25.7% and +29.09%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for NOW. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 1.94% higher. NOW is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, NOW currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 106.26. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 32.86, which means NOW is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that NOW has a PEG ratio of 3.77. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. NOW's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.84 as of yesterday's close.

The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 217, which puts it in the bottom 15% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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