NOW vs SAP Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
ServiceNow and SAP both serve enterprise software customers, but ServiceNow is a cloud-native workflow automation platform expanding AI agent capabilities across IT, customer service, and HR use cases, while SAP is a much larger, more established ERP giant currently transitioning its deeply entrenched customer base from on-premise software to cloud subscriptions.
ServiceNow offers cloud-native growth and AI workflow automation exposure at a premium valuation, while SAP offers a large, entrenched ERP customer base with a multi-year cloud transition growth runway at a more moderate valuation. Consider whether you prefer ServiceNow's cloud-native AI workflow growth or SAP's entrenched ERP base and ongoing cloud transition.
SAP holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. SAP leads on both 1-year return (-16.85%) and forward P/E quality (22.03x vs 28.91x for NOW), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, NOW is growing revenue faster (24.00%), while SAP maintains the higher operating margin (27.62%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for SAP (+17.16%) than for NOW (-1.71%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want exposure to cloud-native workflow automation software with growing AI agent capabilities
- Value ServiceNow's high net revenue retention and expansion into new enterprise use cases
- Believe AI-driven enterprise automation spending will continue accelerating
- Are comfortable paying a premium valuation for a faster-growing, cloud-native platform
- Want exposure to a deeply entrenched ERP platform used by major global enterprises
- Value the multi-year growth runway created by SAP's ongoing cloud transition
- Prefer a more moderately valued, diversified enterprise software portfolio over a narrower workflow platform
- Believe SAP's AI feature integration (Joule) will help defend its position against cloud-native competitors
| Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 40.4 | 37.6 |
| AI ranki | #1148 | #1458 |
| Latest closei | $138.47 | $213.66 |
| 1M returni | +15.88% | +1.52% |
| 6M returni | +22.25% | +17.49% |
| 1Y returni | -27.15% | -16.85% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $7.31K (-26.9%) started 2025-09-18 | $8.46K (-15.4%) started 2025-09-17 |
| 5Y ago | $10.67K (+6.7%) started 2021-09-20 | $17.65K (+76.5%) started 2021-09-17 |
| 10Y ago | $18.22K (+82.2%) started 2016-09-19 | $33.46K (+234.6%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $149.61B | $246.61B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 89.88 | 27.71 |
| Forward P/Ei | 28.91 | 22.03 |
| Price/Salesi | 18.61 | 6.46 |
| EV/Revenuei | 10.41 | 90.91 |
| Analyst targeti | $142.23 | $250.33 |
| Target upsidei | -1.71% | +17.16% |
| Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 24.00% | 9.40% |
| Earnings growthi | -21.90% | 30.60% |
| EPS growthi | -21.90% | +30.60% |
| FCF margini | +34.95% | +23.80% |
| Operating margini | 4.06% | 27.62% |
| Profit margini | 11.34% | 20.41% |
| ROIC proxyi | 14.24% | 18.32% |
| Return on equityi | 14.24% | 18.32% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 1.37% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 37.53% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | 2 yrs |
| Betai | 0.93 | 0.78 |
| Debt/equityi | 67.54 | 21.97 |
| Current ratioi | 0.70 | 1.15 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.56 | 0.98 |
Over the past year, NOW and SAP have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.72), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -26.95% | -16.85% |
| CAGRi | -26.97% | -16.86% | |
| Volatilityi | 57.17% | 38.98% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.34 | -0.39 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.48 | -0.54 | |
| Max drawdowni | 56.82% | 46.90% | |
| Current drawdowni | 27.97% | 22.49% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 32.36% | 24.81% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 36.31% | 28.31% | |
| Max daily dropi | 17.75% | 15.20% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 18.63% | 15.67% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +6.72% | +62.16% |
| CAGRi | +1.31% | +10.15% | |
| Volatilityi | 45.42% | 30.16% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.16 | 0.32 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.22 | 0.47 | |
| Max drawdowni | 64.54% | 52.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 40.84% | 30.31% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 24.21% | 16.10% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 29.73% | 21.98% | |
| Max daily dropi | 17.75% | 15.20% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 18.63% | 15.67% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +82.22% | +183.62% |
| CAGRi | +6.19% | +11.00% | |
| Volatilityi | 282.63% | 28.92% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.60 | 0.35 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 2.52 | 0.49 | |
| Max drawdowni | 79.88% | 52.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 40.84% | 30.31% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 35.14% | 14.35% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 43.03% | 19.81% | |
| Max daily dropi | 79.81% | 23.16% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 79.56% | 28.63% |
| Category | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ServiceNow, Inc. | SAP SE |
| Sector | Technology | Enterprise Software |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | A cloud platform company providing workflow automation software for IT service management, and increasingly customer service, HR, and other enterprise functions, with growing AI agent capabilities layered across its platform. | A global enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company providing core business applications used by large enterprises to manage finance, supply chain, and operations, currently transitioning its customer base to cloud-based subscription offerings. |
| Investor focus | Subscription revenue growth, net revenue retention, expansion into new workflow automation use cases, and AI agent product adoption. | Cloud subscription revenue growth as customers migrate from on-premise licenses, cloud backlog growth, and AI feature adoption (Joule) across its ERP suite. |
- Strong position in IT workflow automation with a growing platform expanding into customer service, HR, and other enterprise functions
- High net revenue retention reflecting strong customer expansion within existing accounts
- Actively integrating AI agent capabilities across its workflow platform, positioning it to capture enterprise AI automation spending
- Deeply entrenched ERP platform used by a large base of major global enterprises for core business operations
- Ongoing cloud transition creates a multi-year growth runway as customers migrate from legacy on-premise licenses
- Broad, diversified enterprise software portfolio spanning finance, supply chain, and human capital management
- Premium valuation reflects high growth expectations that require continued platform expansion to justify
- Faces increasing competition from other enterprise software vendors also building AI-powered workflow tools
- Growth increasingly depends on successful expansion beyond its core IT service management use case
- Cloud transition requires customers to actively migrate from legacy on-premise systems, creating execution timing risk
- Faces competition from more cloud-native enterprise software vendors including Workday and Oracle
- Large, complex enterprise deployments can involve long sales cycles and implementation timelines
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