Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on Pure Storage from $88.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Wedbush upped their price target on Pure Storage from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.26.

Pure Storage Stock Performance

Shares of PSTG stock opened at $69.14 on Friday. Pure Storage has a 52-week low of $34.51 and a 52-week high of $100.59. The stock has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a PE ratio of 181.95, a PEG ratio of 7.49 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $84.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.46.

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

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In related news, insider Ajay Singh sold 7,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.85, for a total transaction of $602,151.90. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 229,307 shares in the company, valued at $19,686,005.95. This trade represents a 2.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mona Chu sold 9,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.91, for a total transaction of $771,916.81. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 107,353 shares in the company, valued at $9,115,343.23. This represents a 7.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 327,311 shares of company stock worth $27,896,100 over the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PSTG. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Pure Storage by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,598 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pure Storage by 40.1% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 468 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. One Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 1.0% in the third quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 14,750 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,236,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in shares of Pure Storage by 0.3% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 43,756 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,667,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming boosted its holdings in Pure Storage by 10.3% during the third quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,673 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $140,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pure Storage Company Profile

Pure Storage, Inc (NYSE: PSTG) is a technology company that designs and sells data storage hardware and software for enterprise and cloud environments. The company is best known for its all-flash storage arrays that are engineered to deliver high performance, low latency and simplified management compared with traditional disk-based systems. Its product portfolio includes purpose-built arrays and software aimed at transactional databases, virtualized infrastructures, analytics and large-scale file/object workloads.

Key product and software offerings include the FlashArray family for block storage and FlashBlade for file and object workloads, together with Purity, the company’s storage operating environment.