Swiss National Bank Trims Position in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)

Swiss National Bank decreased its holdings in Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 584,100 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 58,100 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.18% of Pure Storage worth $20,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PSTG. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 5,725.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,614,837 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,116 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,294,285 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1,025.3% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,269,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,235,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157,079 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,028,104 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 83.9% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,068,255 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $73,754,000 after purchasing an additional 943,850 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on PSTG shares. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup began coverage on Pure Storage in a research note on Friday, March 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.63.

Pure Storage Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Pure Storage stock opened at $53.45 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Pure Storage, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.57 and a twelve month high of $58.46. The company has a market cap of $17.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 314.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.78 and a beta of 1.15. The company’s 50 day moving average is $52.61 and its 200 day moving average is $42.76.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 2.17%. The firm had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $784.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total transaction of $1,981,593.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at $1,015,150.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO Dan Fitzsimons sold 29,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive now owns 138,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,200,794.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 286,581 shares of company stock valued at $15,266,704. Insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

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.