Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and thirteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $95.2632.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PSTG shares. Tigress Financial set a $105.00 target price on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Wedbush raised their price objective on Pure Storage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Pure Storage from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Pure Storage from $88.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $77.00 price objective on Pure Storage in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Pure Storage Trading Up 5.0%

NYSE:PSTG opened at $73.65 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $87.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 193.81, a P/E/G ratio of 7.84 and a beta of 1.27. Pure Storage has a 12-month low of $34.51 and a 12-month high of $100.59.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 9th. The technology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 10.60% and a net margin of 3.74%.The business had revenue of $763.77 million during the quarter. On average, research analysts predict that Pure Storage will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pure Storage

In other news, CAO Mona Chu sold 9,091 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.91, for a total transaction of $771,916.81. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 107,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,115,343.23. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of Pure Storage stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.33, for a total value of $8,733,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 300,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,199,000. This represents a 25.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 427,311 shares of company stock worth $36,629,100 over the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Pure Storage by 1.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,891,025 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,840,407,000 after buying an additional 623,019 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Pure Storage by 1.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,864,918 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $910,589,000 after acquiring an additional 199,831 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 25.9% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,075,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $401,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,782 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,273,696 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $417,830,000 after acquiring an additional 123,320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pure Storage by 112.9% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,926,836 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $283,687,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612,300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.42% 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.