DDOG vs ESTC vs NOW Stock Comparison

Datadog, Elastic and ServiceNow Prices as of Oct 26, 2026 Peers: Industry group
DDOG Datadog, Inc.
$280.24 +4.5% 1M +79.1% 1Y
Market cap
$100.03B
P/E
563.3x
Revenue (TTM)
$3.97B
Div. yield
–
IT Operations Software Technology
3 wins
ESTC Elastic N.V.
$106.26 +20.7% 1M +20.5% 1Y
Market cap
$11.02B
P/E
29.3x
Revenue (TTM)
$1.80B
Div. yield
–
Data Infrastructure Technology
6 wins
NOW ServiceNow, Inc.
$158.19 +16.6% 1M -15.0% 1Y
Market cap
$159.67B
P/E
95.6x
Revenue (TTM)
$14.73B
Div. yield
–
Business Process Automation Technology
1 win

Head to Head

10 decided of 12

Elastic leads on 6 of the 12 questions below (Elastic 6, Datadog 3, ServiceNow 1). Which ones matter depends on what you are buying for; a cheap multiple and slow growth often come together.

QuestionDDOGESTCNOWLeader
Larger companyMarket capitalisation $100.03B $11.02B $159.67B NOW
Cheaper on earningsLower P/E, profitable companies only 563.3x 29.3x 95.6x ESTC
Cheaper on forward earningsLower price / next fiscal year consensus EPS 103.0x 30.3x 41.1x ESTC
Faster revenue growthRevenue growth, trailing twelve months +31.5% +16.2% +22.2% DDOG
More profitableNet margin, trailing twelve months 4.5% 20.8% 11.3% ESTC
Better return on capitalReturn on invested capital — 0.0% — –
Less leveragedLower net debt / EBITDA — -10.8x 0.8x ESTC
Higher dividend yieldTrailing dividend yield 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% –
Better 1-year returnPrice return, last 12 months +79.1% +20.5% -15.0% DDOG
Better 5-year returnAnnualised price return, 5 years +12.3%/yr -8.8%/yr +3.5%/yr DDOG
Less volatileAnnualised volatility, 1 year 69.2% 58.2% 58.8% ESTC
Higher overall scoreMean of the five percentile scores vs peers 65/100 71/100 52/100 ESTC

Percentile Scorecard

DDOGESTCNOW

Each axis is the mean percentile of its metrics against the company's industry group. 100 is the best in the group, 50 the middle.

Scores by Axis

AxisDDOGESTCNOW
Valuation 30 #87 of 124 70 #38 of 124 28 #74 of 102
Growth 89 #13 of 113 82 #21 of 113 58 #42 of 98
Profitability 75 #28 of 110 66 #38 of 110 82 #18 of 95
Financial Health 77 #30 of 129 53 #61 of 129 50 #55 of 109
Shareholder Returns 53 #32 of 67 85 #11 of 67 41 #38 of 64
Overall 65 71 52
  • DDOG ranked among 137 companies in Infrastructure Software
  • ESTC ranked among 137 companies in Infrastructure Software
  • NOW ranked among 115 companies in Business Applications

Price Performance

Price return, split-adjusted, before dividends. Click a name to hide or show it.

Returns

PeriodDDOGESTCNOWSPY
1 month +4.5%+20.7%+16.6% -0.8%
3 months +11.3%+73.6%+49.9% +3.5%
6 months +111.2%+122.2%+74.9% +7.0%
Year to date +106.1%+40.9%+3.3% +12.2%
1 year +79.1%+20.5%-15.0% +13.0%
3 years +243.1%+40.7%+42.8% +86.3%
3 years, per year +50.9%+12.1%+12.6% +23.1%
5 years +78.4%-37.0%+19.0% +68.6%
5 years, per year +12.3%-8.8%+3.5% +11.0%
10 years ——+902.5% +258.0%
10 years, per year ——+25.9% +13.6%

Risk

MeasureDDOGESTCNOWSPY
Volatility, 1Y 69.2%58.2%58.8% 12.7%
Downside volatility, 1Y 59.7%59.3%61.5% 12.7%
Beta vs S&P 500, 1Y 1.281.140.62 1.00
Return / volatility, 1Y 1.140.35-0.25 1.02
Max drawdown, 5Y -68.1%-76.8%-64.5% -25.4%
From 52-week high -4.4%0.0%-16.4% -1.8%
52-week high $293.26$106.26$189.26 $779.14
52-week low $102.61$43.30$83.00 $631.97

Valuation History

Weekly multiples on trailing twelve-month fundamentals. Negative or extreme readings (a loss year, a collapsed denominator) are left out so the chart stays readable.

MultipleDDOGESTCNOW
P/E now vs peer median 562.2xmedian 38.1x 29.6xmedian 38.1x 97.7xmedian 28.8x
P/S now vs peer median 25.4xmedian 4.3x 6.2xmedian 4.3x 11.1xmedian 2.8x
EV/EBITDA now vs peer median 583.5xmedian 35.4x 124.2xmedian 35.4x 48.7xmedian 17.7x
P/FCF now vs peer median 85.1xmedian 27.1x 32.0xmedian 27.1x 35.7xmedian 15.8x
P/B now vs peer median 23.0xmedian 3.4x 8.6xmedian 3.4x 13.1xmedian 3.2x
PEG now vs peer median 9.89median 1.27 0.55median 1.27 18.80median 0.85

Financial History

Reported figures by fiscal period, placed on the calendar year (or quarter) each period ended in, so companies with different fiscal years line up.

Trailing twelve monthsDDOGESTCNOW
Revenue $3.97B $1.80B $14.73B
Gross profit $3.15B $1.36B $11.02B
Operating income $16.33M -$47.61M $1.68B
Net income $177.58M $375.64M $1.67B
Free cash flow $1.18B $349.04M $4.58B
R&D $1.73B $455.30M $3.26B
EPS (diluted) $0.48 $3.59 $1.61
Cash & equivalents $434.96M $879.87M $2.50B
Total debt – $571.20M $7.52B
Shares (diluted) 371.02M 104.64M 1.03B
Enterprise value $81.67B $5.55B $138.13B

All Metrics

58 metrics · best in bold

Bold marks the best reading: the lowest positive value for multiples, leverage and payout, the highest for everything else. The bar under each value is its percentile against that company's own peers. Hover a value for its rank and the peer median.

Valuation

12 metrics
MetricDDOGESTCNOW
P/E 562.2x 29.6x 97.7x
P/FCF 85.1x 32.0x 35.7x
P/Operating cash flow 81.8x 31.5x 30.8x
P/S 25.4x 6.2x 11.1x
P/B 23.0x 8.6x 13.1x
P/Tangible book 23.2x 8.7x 18.7x
EV/EBITDA 583.5x 124.2x 48.7x
EV/EBIT 5,855x -215.9x 99.1x
EV/Revenue 24.1x 5.7x 11.3x
EV/FCF 80.9x 29.5x 36.3x
EV/Operating cash flow 77.8x 29.0x 31.4x
PEG (3Y EPS CAGR) 9.89 0.55 18.80

Growth

14 metrics
MetricDDOGESTCNOW
Revenue growth (1Y) 31.5% 16.2% 22.2%
Revenue CAGR (3Y) 27.9% 17.4% 22.5%
Gross profit growth (1Y) 30.8% 16.7% 16.4%
Gross profit CAGR (3Y) 28.0% 18.8% 20.5%
Operating income growth (1Y) 189.5% -56.0% 4.9%
Operating income CAGR (3Y) 28.7% 37.5% 49.1%
Net income growth (1Y) 42.5% 549.9% 0.5%
Net income CAGR (3Y) 60.5% 55.3% 5.5%
EPS growth (1Y) 37.8% 555.6% 1.7%
EPS CAGR (3Y) 56.8% 53.7% 5.2%
Operating cash flow growth (1Y) 27.3% 11.3% 13.0%
Operating cash flow CAGR (3Y) 36.3% 62.1% 22.2%
Free cash flow growth (1Y) 27.7% 11.2% 19.0%
Free cash flow CAGR (3Y) 37.6% 63.2% 25.7%

Profitability

14 metrics
MetricDDOGESTCNOW
Gross margin 79.5% 75.5% 74.8%
EBITDA margin 4.1% 4.6% 23.2%
Operating margin 0.4% -2.6% 11.4%
Pretax margin 5.0% -1.1% 15.9%
Net margin 4.5% 20.8% 11.3%
FCF margin 29.8% 19.4% 31.1%
Operating cash flow margin 31.0% 19.6% 36.0%
Return on equity 4.2% 29.2% 13.8%
Return on assets 2.4% 12.2% 6.0%
Return on invested capital – 0.0% –
Return on capital employed 0.3% -2.3% 10.6%
Asset turnover 0.5x 0.6x 0.5x
Cash conversion (OCF / net income) 6.9x 0.9x 3.2x
Stock comp / revenue 20.7% 16.8% 12.3%

Financial Health

11 metrics
MetricDDOGESTCNOW
Debt / assets – 19.0% 23.7%
Debt / equity – 0.4x 0.6x
Net debt / EBITDA – -10.8x 0.8x
Debt / FCF – 1.6x 1.6x
Liabilities / assets 42.1% 56.8% 60.5%
Equity / assets 57.9% 43.2% 39.5%
Interest coverage 1.4x -1.9x –
Current ratio 3.2x 1.8x 0.7x
Quick ratio 3.2x 1.6x 0.6x
Cash ratio 2.7x 1.4x 0.4x
Altman Z-score 20.21 4.47 5.89

Shareholder Returns

7 metrics
MetricDDOGESTCNOW
Dividend yield – – –
Net buyback yield -0.1% 3.1% 1.9%
Shareholder yield -0.1% 3.1% 1.9%
Payout ratio (earnings) – – –
Payout ratio (FCF) – – –
Dividend growth (1Y) – – –
Dividend CAGR (3Y) – – –

Analyst Estimates

Solid lines are reported fiscal-year results; dashed lines are the consensus for the years ahead. Hover a year for the analysts' high and low, and how each result compared with its estimate.

ConsensusDDOGESTCNOW
Forward P/E 103.0xFY2026 30.3xFY2026 41.1xFY2026
EPS, next fiscal year $2.72FY2026 $3.51FY2026 $3.85FY2026
EPS growth, next FY +32.7%FY2026 +36.6%FY2026 +9.7%FY2026
EPS growth, the year after +1.8% +19.4% +27.0%
Revenue, next fiscal year $4.18BFY2026 $1.88BFY2026 $15.25BFY2026
Revenue growth, next FY +21.7%FY2026 +8.2%FY2026 +14.8%FY2026
Revenue growth, the year after +24.9% +18.3% +17.7%

Institutional Ownership

13F filings, quarter ended Jun 30, 2026
HoldersDDOGESTCNOW
Held by institutions 90.4% 86.4% 81.6%
Institutions holding 1,265 371 2,224
Change in shares held, QoQ +6.1% +1.7% -2.1%
Institutions buying 738 199 1,285
Institutions selling 432 129 779
Buyers to sellers 1.71 1.54 1.65

Return Correlation

Daily returns, last 12 months

1.00 means two stocks move in lockstep, 0 that they move independently. Pairs below about 0.5 diversify each other.

DDOGESTCNOW
DDOG 1.00 0.50 0.43
ESTC 0.50 1.00 0.64
NOW 0.43 0.64 1.00

Add a Peer

Largest companies in the same industry

Related Comparisons

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is bigger, DDOG, ESTC and NOW?

ServiceNow (NOW) is the largest by market capitalisation: Datadog (DDOG) $100.03B, Elastic (ESTC) $11.02B, ServiceNow (NOW) $159.67B.

Which stock is cheaper, DDOG, ESTC and NOW?

Elastic (ESTC) trades on the lowest price-to-earnings ratio (Datadog (DDOG) 563.3x, Elastic (ESTC) 29.3x, ServiceNow (NOW) 95.6x). On next year's consensus earnings, Elastic (ESTC) is cheapest (Datadog (DDOG) 103.0x, Elastic (ESTC) 30.3x, ServiceNow (NOW) 41.1x). A lower multiple can reflect slower expected growth, so read it next to the growth figures.

Which company is growing faster?

Datadog (DDOG) grew revenue fastest over the trailing twelve months: Datadog (DDOG) +31.5%, Elastic (ESTC) +16.2%, ServiceNow (NOW) +22.2%.

Which company is more profitable?

Elastic (ESTC) has the highest net margin (Datadog (DDOG) 4.5%, Elastic (ESTC) 20.8%, ServiceNow (NOW) 11.3%).

Which stock has performed better?

Over the past year Datadog (DDOG) returned the most: Datadog (DDOG) +79.1%, Elastic (ESTC) +20.5%, ServiceNow (NOW) -15.0%. Over five years, Datadog (DDOG) compounded fastest (Datadog (DDOG) +12.3%/yr, Elastic (ESTC) -8.8%/yr, ServiceNow (NOW) +3.5%/yr). Returns are price only, before dividends.

Which stock is riskier?

By one-year price volatility, Elastic (ESTC) has been the steadiest (Datadog (DDOG) 69.2%, Elastic (ESTC) 58.2%, ServiceNow (NOW) 58.8%). Volatility measures how widely the price swings, not the risk of the business.

Which is the better stock, DDOG, ESTC and NOW?

There is no single answer; it depends on what you are buying for. On the 12 head-to-head measures on this page, Elastic (ESTC) leads on 6. Business Quant does not give investment advice; use the comparison as a starting point for your own research.

Data from SEC filings, exchange prices and consensus estimates, via Business Quant. Percentile scores compare each company with its own peer group, so two companies' scores are each relative to different peers unless you rank against the whole market. Price returns exclude dividends. Nothing on this page is investment advice.