ServiceNow Shares Higher After Earnings Beat

By Michael Dabaie

ServiceNow Inc. shares were up 10.7%, to $536.43, in late morning trading after earnings came in above analyst views.

The digital workflow company after the bell Wednesday reported fourth-quarter total revenue of $1.61 billion, up 29% and above FactSet consensus for $1.6 billion. Subscription revenue was up 29%, to $1.52 billion.

Adjusted EPS came to $1.46, better than FactSet consensus of $1.43.

ServiceNow guided for first quarter subscription revenue of $1.61 billion to $1.615 billion for 25% growth and full year subscription revenue of $7.02 billion to $7.04 billion for 26% growth.

"In light of the recent software bear market, investors have been worried that there would be a fall-off in fundamentals as we move out of the pandemic. But the results at ServiceNow show what our primary research across our coverage has indicated, and that is that fundamentals remain very good," J.P. Morgan said in an analyst note.

Truist Securities said core strength drove strong momentum into 2022.

"Despite FX headwinds stemming from their global presence, the company continues to produce beat-and-raise quarters benefiting from both new customers and significant upsell. While fundamental performance on the quarter was driven largely from the strength of their core offering, commentary on the call made us incrementally optimistic about new product opportunities in the year ahead," Truist said.

Stifel said in a note that "Net/net we expect that ServiceNow's rapidly expanding platform, growing pipeline, and large deal momentum should enable the company to maintain 20%+ revenue growth and significant margin expansion in coming years."

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2022 11:21 ET (16:21 GMT)

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