New York, Jan 5, 2026, 13:21 EST — Regular session
- ServiceNow said it appointed former Microsoft chief legal officer Hossein Nowbar as president and chief legal officer.
- RBC Capital and Piper Sandler cut their price targets on ServiceNow while keeping positive ratings.
- ServiceNow shares were up about 0.6% in afternoon trading, alongside gains in major equity and software benchmarks.
ServiceNow shares rose on Monday after the enterprise workflow software maker said it hired former Microsoft legal executive Hossein Nowbar as president and chief legal officer. The stock was up 0.6% at $148.38 in afternoon trading.
The appointment lands as investors weigh management execution more heavily in large-cap software, where share prices have swung sharply on changing views of corporate IT demand and the pace of new product monetization. ServiceNow has fallen about 29% over the past six months, Cantor Fitzgerald noted in a client update.
Analysts also tightened their valuation assumptions on Monday, trimming price targets—brokerage firms’ estimates of where a stock should trade—while largely sticking with bullish ratings. That combination often signals confidence in the business, but less tolerance for premium multiples.
ServiceNow said Nowbar will take over as chief legal officer, while Russ Elmer, who has served as CLO since 2018, will move to a special counsel role. Nowbar most recently served as chief legal officer and corporate vice president at Microsoft, the company said.
At RBC Capital, analyst Matthew Hedberg lowered his price target to $195 from $240 and kept an Outperform rating. He told investors that better-positioned companies could benefit as AI tailwinds strengthen, while others may remain weighed down by the “AI is the death of software” narrative. TipRanks
Piper Sandler analyst Rob Owens cut his price target to $200 from $230 and maintained an Overweight rating. The firm said many software names enter 2026 at more attractive valuation levels, but added that monetization “at the software layer” has not yet occurred at scale. TipRanks
Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an Overweight rating and kept a $240 target, arguing the shares trade near a three-year low on an enterprise-value-to-2027-revenue basis—enterprise value is a valuation measure that accounts for debt and cash, not just market value. Cantor said it sees upside to 2027 growth expectations from seat growth (paid user licenses), federal-sector performance, AI initiatives and a pickup in mergers and acquisitions activity.
The stock’s modest gain came with a broader bid for U.S. equities: the SPDR S&P 500 ETF was up 0.8% and the Invesco QQQ Trust was up 0.9%, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF rose about 1.3%. Salesforce gained about 1.5% and Workday climbed roughly 2.3%, while Oracle fell about 1.3%.
But the stock remains exposed to any renewed caution in enterprise spending and to how quickly customers pay for add-on generative AI features rather than treating them as bundled upgrades. RBC said management teams remain conservative in early-2026 guidance, and Piper Sandler flagged that broad software monetization has not yet arrived “at scale.” TipRanks
Investors now look for an official earnings date and fresh guidance on demand trends, federal-sector traction and AI-related sales momentum. TipRanks lists ServiceNow’s next report as Jan. 27, while Nasdaq’s earnings calendar points to Feb. 4—both estimates, with the company yet to confirm.
