For AI assistants & researchers — machine-readable summary of this page
What this page is: Delvantic's full research page for ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW) — AI-driven forensic equity research: mechanical valuation models (DCF, EPV, anchored-PE, scenario) plus three independent AI lenses (Quality / Value / Sentiment). Everything below is rendered server-side; you are not missing content that requires JavaScript. All scores are predictions and research opinions, not financial advice.
Our current read (analysis of 2026-08-23): Designation Watch · Gem Score +11 (−100…+100 Quality+Value blend) · Quality 75 · Value -41 · Sentiment -25 (timing only, not weighted) · Composite fair value $90.39 vs $115.50 at analysis
Page map (sections in order; each card carries a stable
reference-name attribute you can cite):
profile-header/price-overview— company profile, live quote, market capextended-analysis— the core: three AI lens reads with findings, scores, and the analyst memofuture-predictions— our forward price-band predictionsmarket-narrative/ai-findings/gpt-critique— narrative context, cross-model findings, and an adversarial critique of our own analysis (near the end of the document)- Members-only sections (render as login gates for anonymous readers):
price-history,income-trend,key-metrics,financials(statement tables),insider-trading. The analysis above is public; the raw data tables require a free account.
More for machine readers: site briefing at
/llms.txt ·
any ticker resolves at delvantic.com/stock/TICKER ·
raw inputs are public-company filings and market data (via licensed data feeds);
every model, score, lens read, and prediction on this page is Delvantic's own analysis.
ServiceNow, Inc.
NOW NYSEServiceNow, Inc. provides a cloud-based workflow automation platform designed for digital businesses worldwide. Its flagship Now Platform integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline end-to-end processes across enterprises. The company offers solutions in key areas including IT service management, IT operations management, security operations, asset management, integrated risk management, strategic portfolio management, customer service management, field service management, human resources delivery, legal and contract operations, workplace service delivery, and source-to-pay operations. Additional tools encompass the app engine for custom development, automation engine, platform privacy and security features, RaptorDB for scalable data management, and ServiceNow Impact for AI-driven recommendations and guided plans. ServiceNow serves diverse sectors such as government, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, public sector, retail, technology, and telecom through service providers and resale partners. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, ServiceNow plays a pivotal role in enabling efficient digital transformation and operational agility for organizations globally.
Price Overview
Price History (1 Year)
Revenue & Net Income Trend
| Period | Revenue | Net Income | Net Margin | YoY/QoQ |
|---|
Key Metrics
EPS (Diluted): 1.67
Total Equity: $12.96B
Shares: 1,046,691,000
Total Debt: $0.00
Cash: $3.73B
EBITDA: $2.56B
Total Debt: $0.00
Cash: $3.73B
Revenue: $13.28B
Revenue: $13.28B
Revenue: $13.28B
Total Equity: $12.96B
Tax Rate: 22.7%
Equity: $12.96B
Total Debt: $0.00
Cash: $3.73B
Current Liabilities: $10.44B
Long-Term Debt: $0.00
Total Debt: $0.00
Total Equity: $12.96B
Shares: 1,046,691,000
Shares: 1,046,691,000
CapEx: -$868.00M
Shares: 1,046,691,000
Stock Price: $115.32
Net Income: $1.75B
Industry Benchmarks
Income Statement (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 12:58pm (20d ago)| Metric | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $5.9B | $7.2B | $9.0B | $11.0B | $13.3B |
| Cost of Revenue | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.9B | $2.3B | $3.0B |
| Gross Profit | $4.5B | $5.7B | $7.1B | $8.7B | $10.3B |
| Operating Expenses | $4.3B | $5.3B | $6.3B | $7.3B | $8.5B |
| Operating Income | $257.0M | $355.0M | $762.0M | $1.4B | $1.8B |
| Net Income | $230.1M | $325.0M | $1.7B | $1.4B | $1.7B |
| EBITDA | $729.0M | $788.0M | $1.3B | $1.9B | $2.6B |
| EPS | $0.23 | $0.32 | $1.70 | $1.38 | $1.69 |
| EPS (Diluted) | $0.23 | $0.32 | $1.68 | $1.37 | $1.67 |
Balance Sheet (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 12:36pm (20d ago)| Metric | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash & Equivalents | $1.7B | $1.5B | $1.9B | $2.3B | $3.7B |
| Total Current Assets | $5.2B | $6.7B | $7.8B | $9.2B | $10.5B |
| Total Assets | $10.8B | $13.3B | $17.4B | $20.4B | $26.0B |
| Current Liabilities | $4.9B | $6.0B | $7.4B | $8.4B | $10.4B |
| Long-Term Debt | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total Liabilities | $7.1B | $8.3B | $9.8B | $10.8B | $13.1B |
| Total Equity | $3.7B | $5.0B | $7.6B | $9.6B | $13.0B |
| Retained Earnings | -$4.0M | $338.0M | $2.1B | $3.5B | $5.2B |
Cash Flow (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 12:58pm (20d ago)| Metric | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating Cash Flow | $2.2B | $2.7B | $3.4B | $4.3B | $5.4B |
| Capital Expenditure | -$392.0M | -$550.0M | -$694.0M | -$852.0M | -$868.0M |
| Free Cash Flow | $1.8B | $2.2B | $2.7B | $3.4B | $4.6B |
| Acquisitions (net) | -$785.0M | -$91.0M | -$282.0M | -$113.0M | -$1.1B |
| Net Debt Issued / (Repaid) | $0 | $0 | — | — | — |
| Dividends Paid | — | — | — | — | — |
| Stock Buybacks | $0 | $0 | -$538.0M | -$696.0M | -$1.8B |
| Net Change in Cash | $53.0M | -$257.0M | $429.0M | $406.0M | $1.4B |
Growth Trends (YoY %)
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 12:58pm (20d ago)| Metric | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Growth | +22.9% | +23.8% | +22.4% | +20.9% |
| Gross Profit Growth | +24.9% | +24.3% | +23.4% | +18.4% |
| Operating Income Growth | +38.1% | +114.6% | +79.0% | +33.7% |
| Net Income Growth | +41.2% | +432.6% | -17.7% | +22.7% |
| EBITDA Growth | +8.1% | +68.0% | +45.6% | +32.9% |
Dividend History (Last 20)
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 12:36pm (20d ago)| Date | Dividend | Declaration | Record | Payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-09-22 | $0.32 | — | — | — |
| 2006-06-22 | $0.32 | — | — | — |
| 2006-03-23 | $0.32 | — | — | — |
| 2005-12-22 | $0.32 | — | — | — |
Deep Analysis
Risk : Reward — if the last quarter repeats
Live · as of 2026-08-19 20:16Even the bull case prices 51% below today — the ratio here measures the model-vs-market gap, not payoff odds. Another quarter like the worst recent one costs 85%.
| Case | Growth | Margin | Fair value | vs price ($115.50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bull — recovery | +41% | 13.0% | $56.25 | -51% |
| Base — stabilizes | +27% | 11.3% | $34.14 | -70% |
| Bear — keeps slipping | +14% | 9.6% | $19.88 | -83% |
| Stress — last quarter repeats | +24% | 5.7% | $17.07 | -85% |
Narrative Economics
market-narrative step).
Claude Reading
Starting with the raw tape: revenue has marched from $2.80B (Q3'24) to $3.99B (Q2'26), a clean ~43% two-year gain with sequential growth every quarter — that's genuine 20%+ compounding at $16B run-rate, which is rare. But net income tells a different story: $432M → $502M → $385M → $460M → $502M → $401M → $469M → $298M. The most recent quarter's 7.5% net margin is the worst in the series and roughly half the 14-15% run-rate from a year ago. Operating margin at the annual level (13.7%) is fine, but the Q2'26 print suggests either heavy AI capex flowing through opex, stock-comp acceleration, or a one-time hit. FCF at $4.58B on $13.28B revenue (34% FCF margin) is the number that actually justifies a premium — this is a cash machine with zero debt and $3.73B cash. ROIC of 15% on a capital-light software model is decent but not extraordinary.
The valuation math is where I part company with the synthesis. A composite fair value of $85 that gets "signal-adjusted" up to $129 to manufacture a +12% upside is exactly the kind of reverse-engineering I distrust — you don't get to +12% by starting at -26%. At $115.32 and a $115B market cap, the stock trades at ~25x FCF and ~9x sales. For a business growing revenue 21% with 34% FCF margins and no leverage, that is not obviously expensive — it's roughly a PEG-adjusted market multiple for a category leader. The 69x P/E is a red herring inflated by SBC and the Q2'26 earnings dip; on FCF the story is much cleaner. However, I want to flag the elephant: the quoted market cap of $115B at $115.32 implies ~1B shares, which is roughly correct, but ServiceNow's actual recent trading range has been $700-1000+, not $115. Either this is a heavily stale/adjusted price feed or a data error — an 85% drawdown in NOW would be headline news and wholly inconsistent with the "fundamentals holding" narrative. Every downstream valuation conclusion is suspect until this is reconciled.
Assuming the $115 price is real for argument's sake: the pre-flight note that the stock is "40% off recent highs" plus insider activity skewed toward awards with only small sales (1,595 and 1,048 shares — trivial) would be constructive. The market-forces "show me" framing is fair — margin recovery in H2'26 is the swing factor, and Microsoft Copilot/Power Automate bundling is a real, not theoretical, threat to the Now Platform's ITSM moat. The narrative layer's "anchored/moderate intensity" read is the most honest piece of the prior work: this is no longer a story stock, it's a compounder being repriced. A contrarian would argue (a) revenue deceleration is masked by cRPO pull-forwards and federal deals that don't repeat, (b) the Q2'26 margin collapse is the leading edge of AI-infrastructure cost absorption that GenAI SaaS peers haven't yet confessed to, and (c) at $16B revenue, the law of large numbers means 20% growth becomes 15% within 24 months, at which point 9x sales looks rich, not cheap.
Net: I dissent from the synthesis's "+12% upside to $129" as an artifact of signal-adjustment gymnastics, but I land in a similar zip code on direction — modestly undervalued if you trust the price input. On fundamentals alone (34% FCF margin, 21% growth, zero debt, category leadership), fair value on 28-30x FCF is $128-140B market cap, i.e., $128-140/share, implying 10-20% upside. The risk is not the multiple, it's the Q2'26 margin print being a trend rather than a blip — if Q3 prints another sub-10% net margin, the FCF thesis breaks and $95 becomes the floor. I'd size a starter here, not a full position, and make the next earnings print the arbiter. The models are directionally right but arrived there via a suspiciously convenient adjustment; the underlying business is stronger than a 69x headline P/E suggests and weaker than the platform-monopoly narrative claims.
GPT Reading
What stands out first is that the business itself is still excellent, but the stock setup is much less exciting than the quality of the company. ServiceNow has grown annual revenue from $5.9B in 2021 to $13.28B in 2025, a 22%-ish compound rate at meaningful scale, and the quarterly run-rate is still healthy: June 2026 revenue of $3.99B was up 23.9% from $3.22B a year earlier, actually an acceleration from the roughly 22% annual growth seen in 2025. Gross margin remains elite at 77.5%, operating margin improved to 13.7% in 2025 from 12.4% in 2024 and 8.5% in 2023, and free cash flow of $4.58B on $13.28B of revenue is a 34.5% FCF margin. With $3.73B of cash and no debt, this is a fortress SaaS model. On business quality alone, the “mature but still compounding platform” case is easy to make.
The wrinkle is that reported earnings quality is less clean than the topline and cash flow suggest. Quarterly net margins have swung from 15.4% in 2024’s September quarter to just 7.5% in June 2026, despite continued scale. Annual net income was $1.73B in 2023, then oddly lower at $1.43B in 2024 before rebounding to $1.75B in 2025, even as revenue climbed steadily from $8.97B to $10.98B to $13.28B. That pattern says GAAP profitability is still noisy, likely reflecting stock comp and other below-the-line effects that keep P/E less useful than FCF, but it also means investors shouldn’t casually underwrite a smooth margin expansion story. At $115.32 and $115B market cap, the stock trades around 8.7x EV/revenue, 45x EV/EBITDA, 69x earnings, and roughly 25x trailing free cash flow. For a company still growing around 20% with this balance sheet, that is not crazy; for a company already at nearly $16B forward revenue run-rate and showing inconsistent quarterly net margins, it is not cheap either.
That is why I don’t buy the more optimistic implication in the model outputs, especially the valuation synthesis contradiction that says fair value is above the current price while “all three valuation methods agree” the stock is overvalued. The raw numbers do not support a strong undervaluation call. If I annualize the latest quarter, revenue is about $16.0B. Even giving ServiceNow a premium 9x sales on that run-rate yields an enterprise value around $144B; after adding net cash, that is only modestly above today’s market cap and assumes the current ~21%-24% growth holds without a more serious margin wobble. A more conservative 7x-8x on forward revenue, which is hardly punitive for a dominant software asset in a tougher multiple regime, gets you to a valuation range that brackets the current stock rather than screaming upside. My read is simple: wonderful company, but the stock already knows it.
The best case against my caution is that I may be underweighting just how rare this combination is: 20%+ growth at almost $4B per quarter of revenue, 77% gross margins, 34%+ FCF margins, no debt, and a category position strong enough to keep expanding across IT, HR, customer workflows, and now AI-enabled automation. If free cash flow keeps compounding near the 30% rate cited while GAAP margins normalize upward, today’s 25x FCF could prove attractive in hindsight, especially if the market is indeed valuing the stock 40% below prior highs. There is also evidence the feared slowdown is not showing up in the actual reported numbers: the latest quarter’s 23.9% revenue growth was better than the 20.9% “recent revenue yoy” metric, and net income rose from $385M to $298M? No — that quarter actually weakened on margin, but compared with the year-ago June quarter, June 2026 net income of $298M versus $385M is a decline even as revenue rose sharply, which is exactly why I’m not willing to pay up purely for narrative. A bull would argue that this is temporary investment noise; I think the burden is on management to prove that.
What would change my mind is straightforward. I would turn more bullish if the next two quarters show revenue sustaining above 20% while net margin returns to the 12%-15% range seen through most of 2025, or if operating income starts scaling faster than revenue so that the 13.7% annual operating margin moves toward 16%-18%. That would justify a premium multiple and make $130+ reasonable. I would get more negative if growth slips into the mid-teens while EV/revenue stays near 9x, or if free cash flow margin falls materially below 30%, because then the market would be paying a premium for a decelerating large-cap SaaS asset without commensurate margin expansion. Until one of those happens, this looks priced about right, with only limited upside and real execution risk underneath the surface-level quality.
Grok Reading
ServiceNow’s numbers describe a rare franchise that is still compounding at scale: revenue climbed from $5.90B in 2021 to $13.28B in 2025, a 21.7% CAGR, and the most recent quarter printed $3.99B, up roughly 24% from the $3.22B year-ago period. Gross margin sits at 77.5% and free cash flow hit $4.58B against only $868M of capex, a 34.5% FCF margin that makes the 69x trailing P/E look like an accounting artifact rather than an economic one—on FCF the stock trades near 25x. Operating income has marched from $257M to $1.82B over the same five-year span while the balance sheet carries zero debt and $3.73B in cash. That combination of durable mid-20s growth, elite cash conversion, and a fortress balance sheet is the core story; the platform land-and-expand model is visibly still working at $13B-plus of revenue.
What stands out on the debit side is the sharp compression in the June 2026 quarter: net margin collapsed to 7.5% ($298M NI on $3.99B revenue) from the 12–15% range that had prevailed for two years. Earnings CAGR of only 0.5% is distorted by the 2023 NI spike to $1.73B, but the sequential drop still flags either heavy AI investment, stock-based compensation, or early signs of pricing pressure. Secondary signals correctly flag decelerating revenue momentum and macro headwinds for discretionary SaaS budgets. At 9.1x sales and 45x EV/EBITDA the multiple still embeds an assumption that 15–20% growth and margin recovery both materialize; any stumble hands the stock back to the mid-$80s composite fair-value anchor the models produced before quality adjustments.
The prior valuation synthesis itself contains the contradiction worth catching: a raw composite of $85 labeled “overvalued” sits beside a signal-adjusted $129 that implies 12% upside from $115. I side with the adjusted figure because FCF quality, zero leverage, and a still-intact 21% growth rate at this scale justify a premium to static DCF. The narrative layer has already de-rated—the stock is described as trading ~11% below DCF with only moderate narrative intensity—so the easy multiple compression appears largely complete. Microsoft’s Copilot/Power Automate bundling remains the clearest existential risk, yet ServiceNow’s switching costs and workflow depth have historically blunted point-solution and suite attacks; until win-rate data shows otherwise, that threat is priced more heavily than the cash-flow evidence warrants.
The strongest opposing case is straightforward: you are paying 69x earnings and 9x sales for a company whose growth is rolling over, whose latest net margin just halved, and whose addressable wallet share is now contested by the largest software vendor on earth inside a tightening IT budget cycle. A smart bear simply notes that FCF margins in the mid-30s are already best-in-class and therefore have limited further expansion, so any growth deceleration below 15% leaves the multiple unsupported. I weigh that less heavily because the absolute FCF dollar growth (30% CAGR) and the absence of debt give management time and optionality that pure P/E comparisons ignore; the margin dip is one quarter, not a trend, and subscription visibility remains high.
I would flip to outright bearish if two consecutive quarters show revenue growth sustaining under 15% or if operating margin fails to reclaim 14% by the December 2026 print; conversely, evidence that AI agents are driving net-new ACV expansion above 25% or a material step-up in large-deal win rates against Microsoft would push me to a high-conviction buy above $140.
Big-3 Panel — where each AI stands
Advanced Analysis Forensic deep-dive · separate lenses
Revenue has scaled from 5.90B in 2021 to 13.28B in 2025 (a ~22% CAGR), while gross margin has held in a tight 77-79% band and operating margin has expanded from 4.4% to 13.7%. Free cash flow has grown from 1.80B to 4.58B, and OCF/NI of 5.19x with accruals at -14.8% of assets indicate that reported earnings are conservatively stated relative to cash generation. Beneish M of -2.92 and Altman Z of 6.3 corroborate a clean, low-manipulation-risk profile.
Verify before trusting this (5)
- Drivers of 2024 net income dip vs 2023 - tax rate, valuation allowance release timing, or one-time charges
- Customer concentration and net revenue retention trajectory in latest 10-K
- SBC composition (RSU vs performance shares) and whether buyback pace scales with SBC growth
- Any off-balance-sheet obligations or convertible/deferred consideration in the notes
- Segment/geographic exposure and federal/public sector dependence
The e2e composite FV of $85 pulls in a $17.93 EPV floor that clearly under-weights a growing SaaS platform, so the more defensible anchor is the DCF at $97 and the signal-adjusted FV of $129. Splitting the difference and giving credit for Fortress-grade quality (expanding margins, clean accruals, fortress balance sheet, high earnings quality) lands deserved value in the $110-130 range. Price at $115.50 sits inside that band - essentially fair. What the price appears to embed: continued high-teens revenue growth, further operating margin expansion, and successful monetization of the AI/Co-Pilot layer. That is not heroic for this franchise, but it is also already paid for. The 12% upside to signal-adjusted FV is not a margin of safety once you haircut for 14.7% SBC intensity (real dilution cost) and the competitive overhang from Microsoft Copilot / Power Automate. Bottom line: high quality, correctly recognized. To underwrite a real mispricing I need either a lower entry or evidence the AI attach is accelerating ACV faster than consensus.
Verify before trusting this (5)
- cRPO and net new ACV trajectory to confirm the growth assumption embedded in signal-adj FV
- AI Pro/Plus attach rates and pricing uplift disclosed on the transcript
- SBC as % of revenue trend and net dilution rate
- Any macro-driven deal-slip commentary in guidance
- Federal/public sector renewal cadence
The macro tape is mildly constructive (regime +22, VIX 16, S&P near highs) and beta near 1.0 means NOW neither benefits nor suffers disproportionately from index moves. The clearer sentiment force is sector-specific: capital is rotating out of semis into enterprise software this week, which mechanically lifts large-cap SaaS names like NOW. That is a real, if shallow, tailwind. Working against it, the active narrative is losing intensity. The bear case (Microsoft Copilot + Power Automate encroachment, SaaS bloat scrutiny, discretionary software delays) is exactly what news flow is reinforcing: Goldman just added MSFT to its Conviction List, Salesforce and Palantir are being publicly re-rated lower on 'growth-slowing-at-a-premium-multiple' fears, and NOW itself just cut ~300 Silicon Valley jobs, a tell that management sees demand softening. Analyst tone on the peer group (CRM, PLTR) is turning contrarian-bullish only AFTER 30% drawdowns, which is not a template NOW wants to follow. Net: the durable platform narrative still has cult support, but it is no longer expanding, and the incremental headline flow leans negative on NOW specifically while the tape leans positive on software broadly. Those roughly cancel.
Verify before trusting this (5)
- Whether NOW gets specifically called out (positively or negatively) on Copilot competitive dynamics in next earnings
- Whether the software-over-semis rotation persists beyond a week or fizzles
- Any Goldman/large-bank conviction-list moves that add or drop NOW
- Guidance tone following the 300-person layoff - reorg or demand tell
- Whether CRM and PLTR reversals stick, setting a peer-group sentiment floor
This lens hasn't been run for this ticker yet.
When we made this prediction on Aug 4, 2026, NOW was $114.19. We expect it to be $113.00 by Feb 2027, and we consider it great value under $95.00. This is an early model (v0.6.0) — the direction is more reliable than the exact price. Made Aug 4, 2026.
Blue is our prediction, starting the day we made it. Grey is a slower route to the same place — the same destination, taking longer. Black is the actual price, so you can see how we are doing.