New York, May 24, 2026, 18:19 (EDT)
- ServiceNow finished Friday at $102.13, up 2.45%. The stock added about 7.4% this week as a big rally on Monday helped drive gains.
- U.S. stock markets shut Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day. Trading resumes Tuesday.
- BofA’s Tal Liani started the stock at Buy and set a $130 target. A filing out Friday said shareholders approved adding 38 million shares to ServiceNow’s equity award pool.
ServiceNow is trading above $100 again as the U.S. heads into a long holiday weekend. Investors spent the week reconsidering a tough software debate—does artificial intelligence weigh on the company, or does it mean more to sell?
ServiceNow closed Friday at $102.13, gaining 2.45% for the session and trading around 7.4% higher than its May 15 finish. The move was choppy. Shares spiked 8.78% Monday, dropped on Tuesday, climbed Wednesday, fell 3.49% Thursday and then bounced back before the holiday break.
Software stocks are moving more on AI news than on past growth metrics. Agentic AI, or software that acts on its own with little user input, has stoked concerns that businesses might cut back on old-style software licenses. But the same tech means more demand for products that can vet, direct and track what these new agents are doing.
BofA analyst Liani took ServiceNow’s side. His team put coverage back on the stock with a Buy and set a $130 target, while downgrading Salesforce to Underperform. Liani said ServiceNow should “benefit from, rather than be replaced by, new AI solutions.” Barron’s
Peer reviews are getting attention. Salesforce is under the microscope as the street weighs if its AI strategy can balance out slowing growth, and ServiceNow is being sold as core workflow control for enterprises. Reuters said Tuesday U.S. software names like Workday, ServiceNow and Salesforce were bouncing as investors looked again at the risk from AI disruption.
The S&P 500 logged its eighth week of gains and the Dow finished at a record high Friday. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF picked up 1.61%. ServiceNow outperformed the software ETF in Friday’s move, but tech names had buying across the board. The action followed strength in the broader tape.
Not much fresh company news out. ServiceNow in a Form 8-K filing Friday said shareholders cleared changes to its 2021 equity incentive plan, lifting the share reserve by 38 million shares. The plan sets aside stock for employee pay and can help keep workers. It can also dilute existing shareholders, so investors keep an eye on it.
April still sets the tone for ServiceNow. The company posted Q1 subscription revenue of $3.671 billion, up 22%. It bumped its full-year subscription revenue guide to $15.735 billion to $15.775 billion. Current remaining performance obligations, which tracks contracted revenue for the next year, came in at $12.64 billion, also up 22.5%.
Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott said customers now look to ServiceNow as their “AI control tower,” with AI growth “far exceeding” what the company expected. CFO Gina Mastantuono pointed to the next phase for ServiceNow, saying it centers on agentic AI, workflow orchestration, security and data fabric in a single platform. ServiceNow Investor Relations
But the risk isn’t gone. ServiceNow said first-quarter subscription revenue growth was cut by 75 basis points, or 0.75 percentage point, as some Middle East deals slipped because of conflict in the region. Reuters quoted Chief Operating Officer Amit Zavery: “We don’t know when these conflicts will get sorted out.” The Armis deal is also expected to pressure operating margin and free cash flow, the cash left after operations and capital spending, this year. Reuters
Market trading won’t start until Tuesday, with NYSE cash equity markets closed Monday for Memorial Day. That leaves Tuesday as the key session to see if the rally sticks and if AI still helps ServiceNow, instead of hitting software names like it did earlier this year.
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