Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Down 0.7% on Insider Selling

Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) fell 0.7% on Wednesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $51.35 and last traded at $52.35. 366,531 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 4,766,607 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.73.

Specifically, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at $20,389,852.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total value of $1,981,593.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at $1,015,150.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 380,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,389,852.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group upped their price target 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.72.

Pure Storage Trading Up 0.8 %

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 company’s 50 day moving average is $48.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.34. The firm has a market cap of $17.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 312.59, a PEG ratio of 6.98 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, beating 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 business had revenue of $789.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $784.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the first quarter worth about $48,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Pure Storage by 197.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 928 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in Pure Storage by 1,518.6% in the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 102,248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,316,000 after purchasing an additional 95,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moody National Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Pure Storage in the first quarter worth about $373,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.42% of the company’s stock.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.