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 5 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. SAP leads on both 1-year return (-7.75%) and forward P/E quality (24.51x 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 (29.50%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for SAP (+20.21%) 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 | 37.2 | 46.9 |
| AI ranki | #1239 | #706 |
| Latest closei | $106.01 | $235.02 |
| 1M returni | -21.11% | +12.73% |
| 3M returni | -7.16% | +27.99% |
| 6M returni | +15.27% | +40.02% |
| 1Y returni | -42.34% | -7.75% |
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 | $5.8K (-42.0%) started 2025-11-03 | $9.38K (-6.2%) started 2025-10-30 |
| 5Y ago | $7.71K (-22.9%) started 2021-11-03 | $19.03K (+90.3%) started 2021-11-01 |
| 10Y ago | $12.64K (+26.4%) started 2016-11-03 | $36.91K (+269.1%) started 2016-10-31 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $149.61B | $269.65B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 89.88 | 29.09 |
| Forward P/Ei | 28.91 | 24.51 |
| Price/Salesi | 18.61 | 6.85 |
| EV/Revenuei | 10.41 | 96.08 |
| Analyst targeti | $142.23 | $280.83 |
| Target upsidei | -1.71% | +20.21% |
| Metric | NOW | SAP |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 24.00% | 13.20% |
| Earnings growthi | -21.90% | 13.40% |
| EPS growthi | -21.90% | +13.40% |
| FCF margini | +34.95% | +25.49% |
| Operating margini | 4.06% | 29.50% |
| Profit margini | 11.34% | 20.41% |
| ROIC proxyi | 14.24% | 18.18% |
| Return on equityi | 14.24% | 18.18% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 1.25% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 36.45% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | 2 yrs |
| Betai | 0.93 | 0.71 |
| Debt/equityi | 67.54 | 22.79 |
| Current ratioi | 0.70 | 1.16 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.56 | 0.98 |
Over the past year, NOW and SAP have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.67), 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 | -42.00% | -7.75% |
| CAGRi | -42.09% | -7.75% | |
| Volatilityi | 64.17% | 38.51% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.59 | -0.13 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.77 | -0.18 | |
| Max drawdowni | 54.59% | 43.58% | |
| Current drawdowni | 42.00% | 9.42% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 32.04% | 22.53% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 34.82% | 25.35% | |
| Max daily dropi | 26.95% | 15.20% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 33.31% | 15.67% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -22.92% | +74.81% |
| CAGRi | -5.07% | +11.83% | |
| Volatilityi | 47.17% | 29.97% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.03 | 0.37 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.05 | 0.54 | |
| Max drawdowni | 64.54% | 52.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 54.71% | 23.35% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 25.14% | 16.72% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 30.40% | 22.42% | |
| Max daily dropi | 26.95% | 15.20% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 33.31% | 15.67% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +26.38% | +212.86% |
| CAGRi | +2.37% | +12.09% | |
| Volatilityi | 282.94% | 28.91% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.59 | 0.39 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 2.46 | 0.54 | |
| Max drawdowni | 79.88% | 52.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 54.71% | 23.35% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 35.62% | 14.55% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 43.28% | 20.03% | |
| 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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