Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.95.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 price target on shares of Pure Storage in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Pure Storage from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $59.00 price objective (down from $68.00) on shares of Pure Storage in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Pure Storage from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th.

Pure Storage Stock Up 1.9 %

PSTG opened at $50.72 on Tuesday. Pure Storage has a 12 month low of $31.00 and a 12 month high of $70.41. The company has a market cap of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 181.14, a P/E/G ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $55.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.02.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.10. Pure Storage had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 4.53%. The company had revenue of $763.77 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $756.59 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Pure Storage will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pure Storage

In other Pure Storage news, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total transaction of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,550,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Pure Storage news, CFO P. Kevan Krysler sold 14,296 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $911,941.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 518,623 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,082,961.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Colgrove sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.50, for a total value of $5,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 900,000 shares in the company, valued at $53,550,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 324,177 shares of company stock valued at $18,863,083. 6.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pure Storage

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PSTG. Norges Bank bought a new position in Pure Storage in the 4th quarter worth $115,452,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 56.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,696,390 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $237,345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,327,873 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 4,095.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,121,344 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,299,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094,618 shares during the period. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 835.2% during the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 1,078,454 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,458,000 after acquiring an additional 963,140 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Pure Storage by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,294,297 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,115,955,000 after acquiring an additional 567,358 shares during the period. 83.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Pure Storage

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.