Institutional ticker directory tracking stock mentions, long/short ideas, and high-conviction pitches extracted from quarterly hedge fund letters.
| Ticker | Company | Sector | Industry | Pitches | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund / Manager | Thesis Excerpt | Stance | Period / Date | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Broyhill Asset Management Christopher R. Pavese | “ServiceNow ($NOW) provides enterprise cloud computing platforms that automate digital workflows across IT, human resources, and customer service departments. Broyhill initiated and subsequently increased its stake following a 21% sell-off, rejecting the pervasive narrative that enterprise software vendors will be rendered obsolete by generative AI disruption. Financially, ServiceNow displays exceptional unit economics and pricing power, underscored by a 97% gross renewal rate and a rapidly growing customer base. Management has successfully migrated monetization from traditional per-seat licensing to consumption-based models, shielding the business from headcount-reduction headwinds. Its Now Assist product line saw annual contract value targets increased by 50% to $1.5 billion, while customers generating over $1 million in ACV surged 130% year-over-year, confirming that AI functionality serves as an upsell catalyst rather than an existential threat. Near-term catalysts include continued enterprise adoption of Now Assist generative AI modules and expansion into core business workflows. Primary risks include lengthening enterprise software sales cycles and broader macroeconomic pressure on enterprise IT budgets.” | BULL | Q2 2026 Sep 1, 2026 | View Pitch |
Mott Capital Management Michael Kramer | “During the quarter, I bought shares of Intuit, ServiceNow, and Cboe Global Markets for the strategy. These are companies I have watched for years while waiting for an opportunity to buy them because they have strong businesses and play integral roles in their industries. Intuit and ServiceNow operate software-as-a-service business models that deliver high growth rates and strong margins. Both are industry leaders with pricing power and, in my view, are not easily displaced by integration of AI. If implemented effectively, I also believe AI could support further growth, as customers may pay for access to data feeds and tools that improve information flow and efficiency.” | NEUTRAL | Q2 2026 Aug 18, 2026 | View Pitch |
SGA - U.S. Large Cap Growth Tucker Brown | “Positions in Microsoft, Waste Management, Netflix, Ecolab, and Yum! Brands were added to on weakness while also adding to our positions in Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia, and ServiceNow given their strong long-term growth prospects. As part of our ongoing dialogue with ServiceNow, we met with President and Chief Legal Officer Hossein Nowbar and members of the company's legal, compensation and, human resources teams. A significant portion of the discussion focused on the company's recent acquisition activity and the importance of maintaining transparency with shareholders regarding strategic decision-making. Management disagreed with our characterization that its acquisition strategy had become more aggressive, describing the recent transactions as an unusual convergence of several deals rather than a fundamental change in approach. We emphasized that, regardless of management's intent, the lack of timely communication surrounding these transactions contributed to investor uncertainty and undermined shareholder confidence. We encouraged the company to provide clearer and more proactive disclosure around significant strategic decisions to help investors develop a better understanding of the rationale and risks associated with future acquisitions.” | NEUTRAL | Q2 2026 Jul 30, 2026 | View Pitch |
Lakehouse Global Growth Fund Nick, Erwin and Donny | “Consider ServiceNow. It is true it's never been easier to vibe code a beautiful ticketing interface in an afternoon, but you cannot vibe code the 20 years of plumbing that make it a multi-billion-dollar platform. Its core isn't the buttons you click, it's the configuration management database, which maps millions of relationships between servers, software licenses, employees and cloud assets. It is, in effect, the central nervous system of an entire enterprise. ServiceNow is a case in point: it is steering customers toward premium tiers that command higher prices, while layering on a consumption-based 'Assist Pack' model that charges for AI-driven outcomes rather than seats. Again, ServiceNow is the clearest example: its AI suite, Now Assist, is tracking toward roughly $1.5 billion of annual contract value in 2026, some 50% above the target management set only nine months ago, and the number of customers spending over $1 million a year on Now Assist more than doubled in the most recent quarter.” | BULL | Q2 2026 Jul 29, 2026 | View Pitch |
Vulcan Value Partners - All Cap C.T. Fitzpatrick | “We believe that ServiceNow is also one of the best businesses in the world. ServiceNow automates workflows in large and complex enterprises. Their platform sits on top of all of an enterprise's data and systems of record. This very unique and enviable position allows ServiceNow to orchestrate and automate work across departments, enterprise wide. To use an analogy, if a large enterprise is an airport, and its multiple software applications are planes, ServiceNow is the control tower coordinating all of these planes/applications. The company has grown from its roots in IT and now has very large businesses in sales and service, HR, finance, supply chain, operations, and security, as well as in industry specific verticals like Financial Services, Healthcare, and Government. ServiceNow grew revenue 21%, adjusted EBIT 28%, and free cash flow per share 33% in 2025. This growth at scale puts ServiceNow in elite company. Despite the strong performance, the stock is down approximately 40% year to date and 60% since the beginning of 2025. The company has been on our MVP list for over 5 years and has compounded its value at an incredible rate over that period. It has never been materially discounted until recently. Bears fear that ServiceNow will be disrupted by AI. We believe that AI makes ServiceNow's platform better. ServiceNow has long been the best, most trusted, workflow automation vendor. By embedding AI into their existing workflows and providing needed context, execution infrastructure, and governance for AI agents, they are enabling their customers to accelerate automation and generate a real ROI on their investments. The company has significant domain expertise, data, and distribution advantages. The company is very well managed, has a net cash balance sheet, produces significant free cash flow, and is accelerating share repurchases at what we believe is a significant discount to intrinsic value. We are thrilled to be able to own this wonderful business with a substantial margin of safety.” | NEUTRAL | Q2 2026 Jul 23, 2026 | View Pitch |
Emerald Wealth Partners - Growth Equity Strategy Portfolio Manager | “At their 2026 Financial Analyst Day ServiceNow positioned itself not as a traditional Software as a Service (SaaS) vendor at risk of being disintermediated by foundation models, but as the orchestration, governance, and action layer on top of which enterprise AI is operationalized. CEO Bill McDermott described the company as moving from being the 'platform of platforms' to being the 'AI of the AIs'. We fully buy into this thesis, which has been at the core of our investment case for some time already. ServiceNow's own internal AI deployment is generating real, measurable productivity savings that fund both growth investment and margin expansion. Management raised internal cost savings to USD 300 million annualized in 2026 and, as a result, expects headcount to be flat year-on-year on 19% higher sales. Also, management raised the bar in their FY2030 projections: doubling subscription revenue by 2030.” | NEUTRAL | Q2 2026 Jul 17, 2026 | View Pitch |
VVP Q2 Letter 06.30.26 Portfolio Manager | “ServiceNow's workflow automation platform functions as an essential "control tower" for enterprise IT and operational processes. Despite strong revenue and free cash flow growth, AI disruption fears have driven a steep decline in the stock, which the manager interprets as a major opportunity to buy a premier compounder at its first significant discount.” | BULL | Q2 2026 Jun 30, 2026 | View Pitch |
Nightview Capital Arne Alsin | “If you want to understand why we are bullish on enterprise software despite the AI-disruption narrative, ServiceNow is the clearest expression of our thesis. The platform is, in the most literal sense” | BULL | Q1 2026 Apr 20, 2026 | View Pitch |
LLOYD Capital - Growth Equity Strategy Portfolio Manager | “ServiceNow acts as a core command center for deploying AI agents across enterprise environments, protecting it from disruption while opening new monetization paths. Recent acquisitions and platform features have expanded its capabilities into security and governance verticals.” | BULL | Q1 2026 Mar 31, 2026 | View Pitch |
Columbia Global Technology Growth Fund Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC | “ServiceNow (NOW) posted mid-teens losses during the quarter as investors reassessed valuation amid federal government business headwinds and concerns over capital allocation. The company announced a $7.75 billion all-cash acquisition of cybersecurity firm Armis, its largest deal ever, raising questions about strategic focus. Despite this, ServiceNow continues to transform into an AI-powered enterprise platform and targets $1 billion in annual AI contract value. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is workflow infrastructure for large enterprises where experimentation is not tolerated. Once embedded, it expands horizontally across departments without needing new logos. Growth remains strong because digital process automation is still early, not saturated. Switching costs are operational and cultural, not contractual, which is even stronger. AI features monetize best when layered onto workflows customers already trust. Investors worry about valuation and saturation prematurely. Margin expansion follows scale and platform leverage. ServiceNow sells efficiency in organizations that can't afford inefficiency. This is enterprise gravity disguised as SaaS.” | BEAR | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Ithaka US Growth Strategy Scott O'Gorman, Andy Colyer, Daniel White | “ServiceNow has become the leading provider of cloud-based software solutions that define, structure, manage and automate workflow services for global enterprises. The company pioneered cloud-delivered IT service management and expanded into operations, customer support, HR, and security workflows. ServiceNow's stock sold off in the fourth quarter as investors priced in fears that the enterprise software application layer could be disintermediated by AI-native products. This fear drove meaningful multiple compression despite the company continuing to deliver strong fundamental growth. As a result, valuation rather than operating performance was the primary driver of underperformance. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is quietly becoming the operating system for large enterprises, not just an IT ticketing tool. Once workflows run through ServiceNow, ripping it out becomes organizationally impossible. The company benefits from budget priority even in downturns because automation is a cost-saving lever, not discretionary spend. GenAI integrations enhance the platform rather than disrupt it, making workflows smarter instead of experimental. Growth has moderated, but pricing power and upsell momentum remain intact. Margins expand naturally as customers consolidate more processes onto a single platform. Competition exists, but fragmentation works in ServiceNow's favor. This is not hype software — it's enterprise plumbing. Durable, sticky, and still compounding.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
SGA - Global Growth Hrishikesh Gupta | “During the quarter, we liquidated our position in ServiceNow due to forced attrition. While ServiceNow remains a well-positioned leader in enterprise workflow automation, recent developments have increased uncertainty about prospects for the share price. Execution remains strong, but concerns have grown regarding a potential deceleration in 2026 organic growth, a higher valuation multiple, and a shift in strategy from disciplined organic expansion to larger, more aggressive M&A, highlighted by the recently announced acquisition of Armis. This change could introduce greater integration risk and alter the company's historically strong execution profile. Given these factors, we chose to reallocate capital to higher conviction opportunities with clearer visibility into durable growth. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow enters fiscal 2026 as the self-proclaimed "AI-defining enterprise software company," recently issuing a robust subscription revenue guidance of $15.53 billion to $15.57 billion (up ~20% year-over-year). While its stock has faced a 14% pullback in early 2026 due to broader "SaaS valuation" anxieties, the company's fundamentals remain elite, with a 98% renewal rate and a record current Remaining Performance Obligation (cRPO) of $12.85 billion. Management has significantly leaned into shareholder returns, authorizing an additional $5 billion for buybacks, including a $2 billion accelerated repurchase program starting this month. The firm's "Now Assist" AI platform is the primary growth engine, having already surpassed a $600 million annual contract value target. Despite short-term price volatility, ServiceNow's status as the central orchestration layer for enterprise AI agents provides a formidable long-term moat.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Brown Advisory Large-Cap Growth Strategy Brown Advisory LLC | “ServiceNow traded lower during the quarter despite delivering strong results and raising full-year guidance. The company posted solid revenue growth, margin expansion, and highlighted accelerating adoption of its AI offerings. Large deal momentum was robust across industries and geographies. However, negative sentiment toward application software vendors and the announcement of a planned $8 billion acquisition of Armis weighed on shares. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is becoming the operating system for enterprise workflows, not just an IT service desk. Once workflows run through ServiceNow, ripping it out is organizationally painful. Automation and AI enhance the platform rather than threatening it. Budget scrutiny slows growth, but ServiceNow remains a cost-savings lever for enterprises. Pricing power shows up through expansion, not sticker shock. Margins expand naturally as customers consolidate processes. Competition exists, but fragmentation works in ServiceNow's favor. This is not hype SaaS. It's enterprise plumbing with compounding economics.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Emerald Wealth Partners - Focused Equity Strategy Portfolio Manager | “ServiceNow was the second largest detractor this year, with its stock down 27.7%. It suffered from fears that AI will disrupt enterprise software. We think ServiceNow suffers from none of that. On the contrary, it is well positioned to become the connective tissue between enterprises' AI applications. Fragmentation of IT assets increases the value added by the NOW platform. Recent acquisitions added pressure, but their strategic rationale makes sense and their size is modest relative to the business. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow's moat is workflow entrenchment at the center of enterprise IT and operations. Once critical processes run on Now, ripping it out becomes organizational trauma. Growth is driven by expansion within existing customers rather than greenfield wins. Pricing power is strong because value is tied to efficiency, not seat counts. The risk is saturation at large enterprises, forcing heavier reliance on upsell. Competition exists, but displacement is rare once embedded. Execution must stay tight as the platform broadens beyond ITSM. The bull case is becoming the operating system for enterprise workflows. ServiceNow compounds as infrastructure, not just software.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Montaka Global Investments Andrew Macken | “Enterprise software leaders like ServiceNow and Salesforce have been sold off as part of a broad-brushed negative narrative on software disruption by AI. We remain cognisant of these risks and follow them closely. On balance, however, we continue to see low probabilities that enterprise customers will be successful at, or even try to recreate such large, embedded, mission-critical software systems as ServiceNow and Salesforce. And while critics point to slower-than-expected adoption of new agentic features as evidence of the decline of these businesses, we suspect these trends highlight the complexity involved in trying to extract corporate value out of AI, at scale. If so, this arguably favours those players with scale advantages in R&D, customer distribution, and customer data, such as ServiceNow and Salesforce. And following their 2025 stock price declines, we see these businesses as significantly undervalued. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is entering 2026 with a bold target of reaching $1 billion in annual contract value (ACV) from its "Now Assist" AI platform. The company is currently seeing AI deals grow at 50% quarter-over-quarter, with nearly 90 deals exceeding $1 million in net new ACV in the most recent period. Management has committed $4.8 billion through 2030 for cloud infrastructure to support this growth, with Google as a primary partner. For 2026, ServiceNow is on track to report AI revenue independently, a move that analysts believe will trigger a significant valuation re-rating as it proves the scalability of its agentic workflow technology.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 1, 2025 | View Pitch |
Columbia Global Technology Growth Fund Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC | “ServiceNow underperformed during the quarter after the company provided guidance that investors viewed as cautious, and caused concern that renewal deals from large clients were being pushed out. The company's AI innovations are gaining traction and support the company's strategic positioning as a next-gen workflow and AI orchestration platform. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is the automation engine of the modern enterprise — workflows, IT, HR, ops, and now AI orchestration. The platform is sticky, mission-critical, and expanding horizontally with frightening efficiency. Enterprise customers don't just buy ServiceNow; they build on top of it. The company's AI and governance offerings are turning it into the central nervous system of corporate IT. Growth remains elite, margins are expanding, and renewal rates are absurd. ServiceNow is one of the purest large-cap software compounders on the planet.” | BULL | Q3 2025 Sep 30, 2025 | View Pitch |
ClearBridge Investments Large Cap Value Dmitry Khaykin, Deepon Nag | “The Strategy's select growth exposure increased during the quarter due to the strong performance of the higher-beta stocks in this growth bucket as well as the purchase of ServiceNow. The company provides an end-to-end software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to help enterprise customers automate and standardize business processes in areas like IT, customer services, sales and data security. ServiceNow also has a monetizable generative AI product being adopted by its customers. We have liked the business for a long time and took advantage of the April selloff to establish a position. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW) ServiceNow is the enterprise workflow kingpin, possessing an increasingly durable platform moat that makes it a mandatory, high-switching-cost subscription for Global 2000 companies seeking digital transformation. The investment thesis is centered on the massive, untapped opportunity for workflow automation across non-IT functions like HR, Customer Service, and Operations, with generative AI (via Now Assist) acting as an immediate, high-margin revenue accelerator. Management's consistent strategy of moving upmarket into larger, more complex deals is driving margin expansion and Free Cash Flow growth. Unlike many growth stocks, NOW's high customer retention and strong net expansion rate provide superior revenue visibility and justify its premium SaaS multiple.” | BULL | Q2 2025 Jun 30, 2025 | View Pitch |
ClearBridge Investments Large Cap Growth Strategy Erica Furfaro, Margaret Vitrano | “The Strategy's select growth exposure increased during the quarter due to the strong performance of the higher-beta stocks in this growth bucket as well as the purchase of ServiceNow. The company provides an end-to-end software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to help enterprise customers automate and standardize business processes in areas like IT, customer services, sales and data security. ServiceNow also has a monetizable generative AI product being adopted by its customers. We have liked the business for a long time and took advantage of the April selloff to establish a position. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow is the indispensable backbone of enterprise workflow automation, commanding a premium valuation because it's the only platform fully capitalizing on the AI-driven shift in corporate efficiency. The core investment thesis is built on an unbreakable ecosystem moat derived from extremely high switching costs and a near-perfect $120%+ Net Revenue Retention (NRR) rate. This means every customer not only stays but consistently spends more, funding the company's compounding growth. The true engine of the firm's future is its Generative AI suite, Now Assist, which is being integrated across every product line (ITSM, HR, Customer Service) to offer autonomous, human-level task completion. This AI layer is not a feature, it's a massive labor arbitrage tool that drives immediate, measurable Return on Intelligence (ROI) for clients by automating routine work. This has positioned ServiceNow to achieve a robust "Rule of 40" score (combining growth and profitability) and maintain 81% gross margins. While the 50x-60x forward P/E multiple appears lofty, it is justified by the company's superior profitability, $24 billion total backlog (RPO), and strategic partnerships with giants like NVIDIA and Microsoft that guarantee its role as an AI infrastructure leader for the next decade.” | BULL | Q2 2025 Jun 30, 2025 | View Pitch |
Ithaka US Growth Strategy Scott O'Gorman, Andy Colyer, Daniel White | “Founded in 2004, ServiceNow has become the leading provider of cloud-based software solutions that define, structure, manage and automate workflow services for global enterprises. ServiceNow pioneered the use of the cloud to deliver IT service management (“ITSM”) applications. These applications allow users to manage incidents and to plan new IT projects, provision clouds, manage application performance and build applications themselves. The company has since expanded beyond the ITSM market to provide workflow solutions for IT operations management, customer support, human resources, security operations and other enterprise departments where a patchwork of semi-automated processes have been used with varying success in the past. ServiceNow's stock saw a significant rebound from depressed 1Q levels, as the company posted a small earnings beat across the board, following a disappointing guide in the previous quarter. This result was viewed as exemplary given the environment the company is operating in, specifically the DOGE's efforts to cut government spending, which comprises ~20% of the company's revenues. BSD Analysis: ServiceNow turned “ticketing software” into a workflow automation platform that sits in the plumbing of how large companies actually get work done. Once it lands in IT service management, it expands horizontally into HR, customer operations, and now AI-driven workflow orchestration. The platform is sticky because ripping it out would require rethinking dozens of processes across the enterprise. Pricing power is strong, and customers have shown they will pay up for modules that eliminate manual, slow, or error-prone work. The AI narrative only strengthens its position, as companies look to automate away drudgery without rebuilding entire systems from scratch. Valuation is rarely cheap, but ServiceNow has a multi-year runway of seat expansion and product attach. It's a pure-play on digital operations getting more complex, not less.” | BULL | Q2 2025 Jun 30, 2025 | View Pitch |
Parnassus Core Equity Fund Benjamin Allen, Todd Ahlsten, Andrew Choi | “The fund purchased shares of ServiceNow following a substantial decline in price. The firm has a highly defensive corporate software product line with massive switching costs and a long runway for secular growth via operational workflow automation.” | BULL | Q1 2025 Mar 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Each excerpt above is the manager's commentary on this ticker specifically. The full letter has the rest of their portfolio thinking, risk discussion, and broader institutional context.
