Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Up 2.5%

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) traded up 2.5% on Monday . The company traded as high as $54.00 and last traded at $53.55. Approximately 662,817 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 4,382,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.24.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PSTG. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Barclays boosted their price target on Pure Storage from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Raymond James cut Pure Storage from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $63.00 in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.80. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $51.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.40. The firm has a market cap of $17.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 315.02, a P/E/G ratio of 6.78 and a beta of 1.15.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total transaction of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 138,105 shares in the company, valued at $7,200,794.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.14, for a total value of $1,526,815.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,200,794.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total transaction of $1,981,593.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at $1,015,150.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 286,581 shares of company stock worth $15,266,704. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Pure Storage by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 46,793,394 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,666,781,000 after purchasing an additional 663,465 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Pure Storage by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,115,955,000 after acquiring an additional 567,358 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its holdings in Pure Storage by 33.8% in the 3rd quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 4,068,672 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $144,926,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,104 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,028,716 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $143,664,000 after purchasing an additional 160,877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399,759 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $121,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,285 shares in the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc engages in the provision of data storage and management technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. Its Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as always-on data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.