{"id":899817,"date":"2026-10-30T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899817\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:00:16","slug":"servicenow-stock-just-plunged-more-than-20-in-a-single-day-heres-what-it-did-after-its-other-biggest-drops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899817\/","title":{"rendered":"ServiceNow Stock Just Plunged More Than 20% in a Single Day. Here’s What It Did After Its Other Biggest Drops."},"content":{"rendered":"

ServiceNow (NOW<\/a> -26.95%) stock is down sharply on Thursday. As of this writing, the workflow software company’s<\/a> shares are near $112, down about 25% from Wednesday’s close of $150.13.<\/p>\n

That puts the stock on track for its worst day since it went public<\/a> in 2012. Its biggest one-day drop before today was about 18%, on April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

The sell-off followed the company’s third-quarter results after Wednesday’s close. And the quarter itself was good. Subscription revenue<\/a> climbed 21% year over year to $3.99 billion (20.5% in constant currency), beating the high end of management’s guidance.<\/p>\n

The issue was the outlook. ServiceNow guided for fourth-quarter growth of just 18.5% in current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) — revenue already under contract that it expects to recognize within a year.<\/p>\n

I think the slowdown is worth taking seriously. But the stock has come back from most of its worst days before.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image source: The Motley Fool.<\/p>\n

Most big drops didn’t last<\/p>\n

Using daily closing prices (adjusted for stock splits), ServiceNow stock had lost over 10% in a single session on 10 days before today.<\/p>\n

In seven of these 10 cases, the stock was up six months later. And it was higher a year later after six of the eight drops with a full year of history behind them.<\/p>\n

The median gain was around 15% after six months and about 40% after 12 months.<\/p>\n

After the April 23 drop, shares closed at $84.78. Six months later, on Oct. 23, they closed at $158.96 — up around 88%.<\/p>\n

After losing about 16% on Jan. 28, 2016, the stock climbed around 20% in the next six months and about 42% in the next year.<\/p>\n

The July 12, 2022, drop of about 13% took longer to pay off. Shares were around 3% lower six months later, but up about 31% after a year.<\/p>\n

Notably, the April sell-off has a lot in common with today’s. Management had guided for second-quarter cRPO growth of 19.5% in constant currency, and said delayed closings of several big on-premise deals in the Middle East had hurt first-quarter subscription revenue. Second-quarter cRPO growth then came in at 21.5% in constant currency.<\/p>\n

The 2025 exceptions<\/p>\n

But the record isn’t perfect. ServiceNow stock lost around 11% on Jan. 30, 2025, just two days after its record close of about $234. A year later, shares were around 42% lower.<\/p>\n

The stock also slid about 12% on Dec. 15, 2025. In the next six months, it lost about another 32%.<\/p>\n

So a big one-day drop hasn’t been a reliable buy signal by itself. Sometimes it was the start of a longer slide.<\/p>\n

Is the cRPO slowdown just timing?<\/p>\n

Management argues that much of the fourth-quarter slowdown comes down to timing and how cRPO is counted. Chief financial officer Gina Mastantuono told analysts on Wednesday’s call that some contracts renewed early.<\/p>\n

“With respect to cRPO, we saw strong early renewals in Q3 that contributed about half of the beat in Q3. Now that has a negative impact in Q4 because we pulled those deals out of Q4 and into Q3,” she said.<\/p>\n

She added that more on-premise deals from public sector customers will cost fourth-quarter cRPO growth around a quarter of a percentage point, but those deals still count toward revenue. And management expects fourth-quarter subscription revenue to climb 21.5% in constant currency, a bit faster than the third quarter’s rate.<\/p>\n

NOW<\/a> – ServiceNow<\/p>\n

$109.67-$40.46 (-26.95%)<\/p>\n

NYSE \u00b7 As of 4:00 PM ET 10\/29\/26<\/p>\n

Still, cRPO growth has been slowing all year. Reported cRPO growth has gone 22.5%, 21%, and 20.5% in the first three quarters of 2026. A fall to 18.5% would be the biggest step down in that stretch. And if artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a> agents ever eat into what customers pay ServiceNow, this is probably where it might show up first.<\/p>\n

True, ServiceNow has a habit of beating its own cRPO guidance. In constant currency, it topped its second-quarter guide by 2 percentage points and its third-quarter guide by 1 point. But early renewals already pulled part of the fourth quarter into the third, so I wouldn’t count on a big beat this time.<\/p>\n

The sell-off has, at least, left the stock much cheaper. ServiceNow now costs around 23 times expected 2027 earnings<\/a>. The day before, it cost about 30 times those 2027 earnings.<\/p>\n

Overall, ServiceNow’s record after its worst days leans toward patience, and this drop comes with subscription revenue still rising around 20%. But the 2025 drops remind us that a lower price doesn’t guarantee a bounce. For this one to look more like April’s than 2025’s, I think fourth-quarter cRPO growth has to match or beat the 18.5% guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ServiceNow (NOW -26.95%) stock is down sharply on Thursday. As of this writing, the workflow software company’s shares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-899817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}